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Iberoes of tbe Illations 



EDITED BY 



FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD 



FACTA DUCIS VIVENT, OPEROSAQUE 
GLORIA RERUM. — OVID, IN LIVIAM, 165. 

THE HERO'S DEEDS AND HARD-WON 
FAME SHALL LIVE. 



JULIAN 




Coin of Rhodes. Head of Helios; 




STATUE OF JULIAN. 

FROM THE THERMES, PARIS. 



\ 



JULIAN 

PHILOSOPHER AND EMPEROR 



AND THE 



LAST STRUGGLE OF PAGANISM AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 



7 

ALICE GARDNER 

H 

LECTURER AND ASSOCIATE OF NEWNHAM 

COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 

AUTHOR OF " SYNESIUS OF CYRENE " 




J-yifOl 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK LONDON 

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 

^\t %xat\zxhat\zx ||r«ss 

1895 



/ 



Copyright, 1895 

By G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London 



/*/^ c\/ 'Cbe Ifenfcfcerbocfter press, mew Jijorft 



TO THE 

RIGHT REVEREND M. CREIGHTON 
D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Etc. 

LORD BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH 

AND SOMETIME DIXIE PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 

IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 

WITH MANY GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCES 

BY 

The Author 




^HE responsibility of including Julian 
among the " Heroes of the Na- 
tions " rests with the Editors of 
this Series. For myself I would 
only say that Julian has been a 
most fascinating figure to me from 
early youth, and that his character 
has lost none of its attractiveness with the 
more serious study of later years, while 
his relations to his times have seemed 
to me to grow more and more instructive in many 
ways. Julian is not well known to the reading pub- 
lic at the present day, though Mr. Rendall's able 
little book, written from a point of view somewhat 
different from mine, ought to have helped to set him 
in a clearer light. 

It is always a pleasant task to acknowledge one's 
obligations to those who have helped one's work by 
counsel, criticism, or direction. I must be allowed 
in the first place to express my thanks to my brothers, 
Professor Percy Gardner of Oxford, and Mr. Ernest 
Gardner of the British Archaeological School at 
Athens : the former for much general advice, and for 
assistance in selecting the illustrations ; the latter for 
very useful criticisms while the work was in manu- 



vi Preface. 

script, and especially for help in rendering difficult 
passages in the Greek text. Dr. J. S. Reid, tutor of 
Gonville and Caius College, has directed my atten- 
tion to many useful books, chiefly German, on por- 
tions of the subject, and has taken trouble in helping 
to elucidate some of Julian's laws preserved in the 
Theodosian Code. On this subject I have also re- 
ceived suggestions and information from Mr. Monro, 
likewise of Caius College. Mrs. Archer-Hind, of 
Cambridge, has kindly read my proofs and made 
some very helpful criticisms. I have to thank the 
Arundel Society for kind permission to obtain 
photographs of the fictile ivories at South Kensing- 
ton. Mr. Collinson, who has travelled much in Asia 
Minor, has most kindly given me photographs taken 
by himself in or near Tarsus, with interesting com- 
ments. Messrs. Longmans have kindly allowed the 
reproduction of some curious Persian figures in 
The Seventh Monarchy of Canon Rawlinson. And 
the gentlemen in the Medal Room of the British 
Museum, especially Mr. George Hill, have been most 
kind in helping me to select my coins, and in pro- 
curing me casts of them. 

I would here say a word as to my chief object in 
selecting my illustrations. Holding that their chief 
function was to illustrate the text rather than to 
adorn the book, I endeavoured to choose such as 
might make the story more vivid by enabling my 
readers to construct in imagination as much as pos- 
sible of the environment in which Julian and his 
contemporaries lived, their personal appearance and 
dress, the most striking places where they dwelt, the 



Preface. vii 

scenes in which they habitually moved. I have not 
confined myself to contemporary art, which was dur- 
ing my period in a state of weakness and decline. 
One art, however, seems to have suffered less, and 
to have had a more continuous existence than the 
rest — that of carving in ivory. The ivory diptychs 
I have chosen, many of them from this period or a 
little later, give a clear notion of the dress and ap 
pearance of the men and women of the time. Some 
mythological subjects seemed a suitable addition, 
though belonging to an earlier period. Similarly, in 
addition to portraits and other coins of the period, 
I have selected some fine specimens of turreted and 
chariot-driven goddesses and radiant gods, struck in 
the great Asiatic cities, which help us in some meas- 
ure to realise the Hellenic conceptions which Julian 
endeavoured to revive. 

I have given, in suitable places, references to the 
chief authorities I have used. Of course the chief 
authority for the student of Julian must always be 
Julian himself. 

Alice Gardner. 

Newnham College, Cambridge, 
5th February, 1895. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

THE ROMAN WORLD UNDER CONSTANTINE . . I 

Public recognition of three great facts, how far already made 
— Its relation to the career of Julian, (i) That the Govern- 
ment had become monarchic — System of Diocletian — Func- 
tionaries and ranks — Administration in dioceses and provinces 
— Separation of civil and military authority. (2) Rome no 
longer the one capital — Extension of citizenship — Impor- 
tance of other great cities — Founding of a new Rome by Con- 
stantine — Failure of Diocletian's schemes of division — Con- 
flicts which led to supremacy of Constantine. (3) Christianity 
the religion of the Empire — Last persecution under Diocletian 
— Religious policy of Constantius Chlorus and Constantine 
— Edicts of Toleration — Other laws in favour of Christians 
— Constantine's actions with regard to the Donatist and the 
Arian controversies — Athanasius and the Council of Nicaea 
— Arian reaction — Synod of Tyre — Athanasius demands 
justice — His-changes of fortune — Effect of these controver- 
sies on the education and later position of Julian — General 
character of the period. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER II. 

PARENTAGE OF JULIAN. HIS BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 

CAREER AND END OF HIS BROTHER GALLUS . 24 

Birth of Julian — His three names — His pedigree — Death of 
his mother — Family massacre on death of Constantine — 

ix 



x Contents, 

PAGE 

Escape of Julian and Gallus — New division of empire — Civil 
strife — Death of the younger Constantine — Conflicts with the 
Sassanid kings — Sapor invades Mesopotamia — Battle of Sin- 
gara — Revolts of Magnentius,Vetranio, and Nepotian — Death 
of Constans — Success of Constantius — Battle of Mursa — Con- 
stantius sole Emperor — His need of a colleague — Educa- 
tion of Gallus and Julian in Constantinople, Marcellum, etc. 
Julian instructed in Homer by Mardonius — Intercourse with 
maternal relations — Lonely youth — Gallus made Caesar and 
married to Constantina — Sent to Antioch — His failure — 
Domitian sent to make inquiries — Tumult, alleged con- 
spiracy, severe punishments — Mission of Ursicinus — Death 
of Constantina — Reckless conduct of Gallus — He starts for 
Italy — Is put to death in Istria — Relations of the two 
brothers. 
Notes on genealogical tree, etc. 

CHAPTER III. 

julian's academic education 48 

Intellectual tastes and studious habits of Julian — Was he 
ever a Christian ? — Intellectual life of the great Asiatic cities 
— Of Athens — Character of a literary education at this time 
— Subjects of study — Predominance of rhetoric — Influence of 
Rhetoric on the study of literature, mathematics, medicine, 
law, and philosophy — Representative leaders of thought — 
Maximus and the theosophical circle at Pergamun — Libanius 
of Antioch — His career and character — Themistius — His 
works, his religious attitude — Christianity and Paganism in 
education — Student life in Athens — Lack of discipline — Its 
effects on Julian. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER IV. 

julian's elevation to the c^esar-Ship . . .73 

Effects of fall of Gallus — Character of Constantius and of 
Eusebia — Influence of sycophants — Julian summoned to 
Milan — Exile to Como — Retirement to Athens — His life 



Contents. xi 

PAGE 

there — His personal appearance — Fresh troubles in the East 
— Disturbances on Rhine frontier — Constantius in Gaul — 
His campaign in Rhaetia — Revolt of Silvanus treacherously- 
suppressed — Constantius feels the need of a colleague — 
Julian summoned from Athens to Milan — Mental struggles — 
He is made Caesar and marries Helen — Leaves for Gaul — 
News of fall of Agrippina — Winter in France. 
Notes, Helen and Eusebia, etc, 

CHAPTER V. 
Julian's c^esarship in gaul . . . . . 94 

Julian and his colleagues — Sphere of his authority and 
character of his task — His barbarian foes — Campaign ofjj6 
— March to Autun, Rheims, and the Rhine — Recovery of fort- 
resses — -Of Cologne — Romans retire to Sens — Irruption of 
barbarians — Misconduct and recall of Marcellus — Julian's 
attention to judicial and financial affairs — His mode of life- 
Rhetorical compositions — Campaign o/jjy — Julian thwarted 
by Barbatio — The Laeti attack Lyons — Julian tries to inter- 
cept their retreat — Restoration of Rhine fortresses — Great 
invasion of Allemanni — They are beaten at the battle of 
Strasburg — Advance into the enemy's country — Winter in 
Paris — Financial reforms — Campaign 0/358 — March towards 
the lower Rhine — Defeat of the Salian Franks and of the 
Chamavi — Communication with Britain restored — Recall of 
Sallust — Julian again crosses the Rhine — Successes — Cam- 
paign of J59 — Fortress building and expedition into Ger- 
many — Submission of chiefs — remarkable nature of Julian's 
achievements. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER VI. 

MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN EAST AND WEST. JULIAN 

BECOMES EMPEROR 117 

Intimate connection between events in East and West — 
Rival interpretations of breach between Constantius and 



xii Contents. 



Julian — Constantius visits Rome — New regulations — Adorn- 
ment of the city — Alarm from the Danubian provinces — Ex- 
pedition (358) against Quadi and Sarmatians — Massacre of 
Limigantes — Renewed conflict — Negotiations with Sapor — 
Necessity of war — Revolt of Antoninus and expedition of 
Ursicinus into Mesopotamia — Loss of Amida — Demand of 
troops from Gaul — Difficult position of Julian — Objection 
raised by the soldiers — Farewell dinner at Paris — Tumultuous 
night — Julian saluted as Augustus — Alarm of the soldiers for 
his safety — Attempts at compromise — Julian addresses the 
soldiers and writes a letter of explanation to Constantius — 
His second (doubtful) letter — Answer of Constantius — The 
army rejects its terms — Further unsuccessful negotiations — 
Various views of Julian's conduct. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER VII. 

WARS IN EAST AND WEST CONTINUED. DEATH OF 
CONSTANTIUS, AND THE BEGINNING OF JULIAN'S 
REIGN AS SOLE AUGUSTUS 145 

Reasons for delay on both sides — Persian war — Fall of Sin- 
gara and of Phoenice — Constantius advances against Persians 
— His third marriage — Attempts to gain allies in the East 
and to secure Africa against Julian — Sapor retreats — Con- 
stantius turns westward — Campaign 0/360 in Gaul — Subju- 
gation of Attuarian Franks — Julian again crosses the Rhine — 
He assumes imperial insignia — Celebrates the Epiphany — 
Death of Helen — Letters written to Athens and other cities 
— Campaign of 361 — Expedition against Vadomar, a chief 
of the Allemanni — Julian's fifth crossing of the Rhine — He 
addresses the soldiers and marches eastward — Threefold 
march — Sirmium taken — The pass of Succi seized — Dis- 
affection in Rome — Meeting at Sirmium — Unexpected death 
of Constantius — His melancholy career — The corpse brought 
to Constantinople — Julian enters the city and assists at the 
obsequies — End of mutiny — Julian's immediate objects — 
commission to punish offenders — Cases of just and of unjust 



Contents. xiii 

PAGE 

punishment — Palace reforms — Favours to philosophers — Im- 
provement of the city — Religious schemes. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

julian's religion and philosophy . . . 169 

Difficulty of grasping Julian's religious position — Excuses 
made for his so-called apostasy — Influence of Arianism — 
Of defective religious education — Positive sides of his religion 
more important than negative — His ardent Hellenism — At- 
titude of early Christian teachers towards the pagan culture 
— Oriental elements in Julian's religion — Mithraicism — Its 
origin, development, and significance at this time — Cosmo- 
politan character of religion in the Roman Empire — Reasons 
for growth of Mithraicism — Julian's devotion to King Helios 
— Its connection with the other elements of his theology — 
With the theories of Neo-Platonism — Hierarchies and agen- 
cies — Absence of morality — Julian's attempts to rationalise 
and moralise the old mythology — Difficulty of the task. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER IX. 

JULIAN AS RELIGIOUS REFORMER AND CONTROVER- 
SIALIST 193 

Destruction and reconstruction — Attempt to graft humane 
and moral ideas on pagan institutions — Four letters on re- 
ligion to the priestess Callixena — Fragment to a priest, on 
duties of his office — Julian's ideal of the priestly life — To 
Arsacius, high-priest of Galatia — To a priest guilty of assault 
— Judgment of Gregory Nazianzen on Julian's reforms — Con- 
troversial writings against Christians — How far original ? — 
Their present form — Different kinds of argument used by 
Julian in dealing with what is capable or incapable of ex- 
amination — Hellenic and Jewish theories of Creation — Points 
in which Christians differed both from Jews and from Hel- 
lenes — Strictures on Jewish and Christian morals — Jewish and 
Christian worship — Julian's failure to understand the Chris- 
tian stand-point. 
Notes. 



xiv Contents, 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

Julian's policy against the christians . .218 

Religious toleration — Under what conditions possible — In- 
difference or laissez-faire — Julian's idea of the supreme im- 
portance of religious truth, and of his own responsibilities as 
ruler — Means of ascertaining his policy — His determination 
not to persecute — Limits to his toleration — Withdrawal of 
privileges from clergy — Restoration of temple property — 
Cases of iconoclasm — Equal indulgence to all sects — Effects 
on religious parties — Return of exiles — Varied career of Ae- 
tius of Antioch — Party conflict in Alexandria — Murder of 
Bishop George — Return of Athanasius — He is again exiled 
— Julian's letter to the Alexandrians — Julian's edict against 
Christian schoolmasters — Its effect — Indirect influence 
against Christianity. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER XI. 

LEGISLATIVE LABOURS AND ADMINISTRATIVE RE- 
FORMS 245 

Practical and theoretical elements in Julian's character and 
work — Various sources of law in the Roman Empire — 
Julian's efforts towards judicial and financial reforms — His 
personal interest in administration and judicature — Laws 
to regulate appeals and facilitate fair trials — Laws to moder- 
ate public burdens — The public post — Attempts to check 
abuses of the system — Concessions of immunity to impover- 
ished districts — Special exemptions — Endeavours to improve 
municipal organisations — Various laws — Policy towards the 
Jews — Project to rebuild the temple — Its mysterious failure 
— His probable design. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER XII. 

LITERARY RECREATIONS. CONTROVERSY WITH THE 

CYNICS 268 

Character of Julian's literary work — Chief remains — Verses 
on Beer and on the Organ. " The Caesars" — Sketch of the 



Contents. xv 

PAGE 

composition — Procession of Emperors — Contest and award 
— Oration "Against the Cynic Heraclius " — Objection to 
Cynic treatment of mythology — Julian's model allegory — 
Oration " To the Unmannerly Dogs" — Character and origin 
of Cynicism — Its chief features in this period — Why Julian 
disapproved it — Relations of Cynics and Christians. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

JULIAN AND THE ANTIOCHENES . . • . . 295 

Preparation for Persian war — Julian crosses into Asia — He 
visits Nicomedia and Pessinus — His letter to Aristoxenus — 
Arrival at Antioch — Character of city and citizens — Inter- 
course of Julian and Libanius — Judicial measures — Dispute 
with Senators as to religious rites — Transference of bones of 
St. Babylas — Burning of temple at Daphne — Attempt to regu- 
late price of corn — The Senate ordered into custody — In- 
effectual relief measures and grants — Julian writes the Mis- 
opogon — Death of his uncle Julian — He leaves Antioch — 
Bitter feeling. 
Notes. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

julian's Persian campaign, his death . .314 

Julian's objects and plans — The fugitive prince Hormisdas 
— March to Bercea, Batnae, Hierapolis, Carrhse — Troops 
detached for Armenia — Advance down the valley of the 
Euphrates — Beginning of hostilities at Anatho — Difficulties 
of march — Storming of Pirisabora — Capture of Maogamalcha 
— The fleet brought from the Euphrates into the Tigris — 
Troops cross the Tigris — Decision not to blockade Ctesiphon 
— Julian strikes eastward — Great difficulties of march — 
Julian burns his ships — Progress towards the north — The 
Persian army appears — Harassing march — Indecisive battle 
— Truce — Omens — The march resumed — Sudden attack of 
Persians — Julian rushes against the enemy — His wound and 
death — History and tradition. 
Notes. 



XVI 



Contents. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PAGE 

outcome of julian's enterprise, his position 
in history 338 

(i.) The East — State of the army — Election of Jovian, as Em- 
peror — Disastrous march and ignominious peace — Evacu- 
ation of Nisibis — Burial of Julian at Tarsus — Death of Jo- 
vian — Succession of Valentinian and Valens — Subsequent 
affairs in the East, (ii.) The West : unwise measures of Jovian 
— Valentinian revives the policy of Julian in Gaul — Results 
of Julian's work there, (iii.) Civil government : general wish 
to continue a policy of economy — Suspicious character of 
Valens — Rebellion of Procopius — Legislative policy of Julian 
continued, (iv.) Religious affairs — Restoration of Christian 
symbols and privileges, but not much persecution — Valen- 
tinian in favour of non-intervention — Different policy of 
Theodosius — Concluding survey of Julian's life and char- 
acter. 
Notes. 




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



HEAD OF HELIOS. (COIN OF RHODES) Page preceding frontispiece 
STATUE OF JULIAN FROM THE THERMES, PARIS,* Frontispiece 

constantinople personified and a galley. 1 pagh 

(coin of the age of constantine) . . i 

a warrior. (ivory diptych, 4th century) 2 . 8 

map of the roman empire, when divided by con- 
stantine among his sons . . . io * 

a consul. (ivory diptych, 5th or 6th cen- 

tury) 2 14 

a consul, between two columns. (ivory dip- 
TYCH.) 2 18 

ROME PERSONIFIED WOLF AND TWINS. (COIN OF 

THE AGE OF .CONSTANTINE) ' .... 22 

GOLD MEDALLION OF THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE 1 . 24 

GAMES IN CIRCUS. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 2D CENTURY) 2 26 

BAS-RELIEF OF SAPOR II. AND SAPOR III. IN KER- 

MANSHAH 3 30 

COIN OF CONSTANTIUS GALLUS 1 . . . . 45 



* I am bound to say that Bernouilli, in his Iconographie Romaine, 
throws doubt on the ascription of this statue to Julian. But the 
argument in favour of it seems pretty strong. 

1 Reproduced from Cohen's Description historique des Monnaies 
frappe'es sous V Empire Romain. 

2 Reproduced by permission of the Arundel Society. 

3 Reproduced, by permission, from Rawlinson's Seventh Monarchy. 

xvii 



X v i i i List of Illustrations. 

PAGE 

PEDIGREES OF JULIAN'S FATHER AND MOTHER . 46 

COINS OF NICOMEDIA. (THREE TEMPLES — AGONISTIC 

URNS WITH BRANCHES OF PALM) ... 48 

COIN OF NIC^EA. (IMPERIAL TIMES) ... 48 

A MUSE. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 4TH OR 5TH CENTURY) ? 54 
A BUNDLE OF MANUSCRIPTS ROLLED UP. 2 A COIN OF 

CONSTANTINE II. 8 ...... 70 

COIN OF MAGNENTIUS 3 73 

EMPRESS AND SON — PERHAPS PLACIDIA AND VALEN- 

TINIAN. (iVORY DIPTYCH) * . . . 74 ' 

RUINS OF IMPERIAL BUILDINGS, MILAN . .86 

COIN OF CONSTANTINE II. (CONSTANTINE RECEIVING 

A CROWN FROM HEAVEN | ONE OF HIS SONS, TO 

THE RIGHT, RECEIVING A CROWN FROM VICTORY; 

THE OTHER, TO THE LEFT, BEING CROWNED BY 

A SOLDIER) 3 91 

A FOUR-HORSE CHARIOT 2 94 / 

MAP OF GAUL . . . . .... . 98' 

THE THERMES, JULIAN'S PALACE AT PARIS . . IIO / 

ROMAN ENSIGNS OF THE CELT^E AND OF THE PETU- 

LANTES 2 .117 

chariot race before a consul. (ivory diptych, j 

3d or 4th century) ' . . . . . 120 

coin of julian. (the bull apis ; above, stars) 3 143 

coin of king sapor ii., a.d. 340-370 . . . 145 

triumphal arch at rheims ..... 156 ' 

consul with dignitaries. (ivory diptych, 5th 

century) * ...... . 162 

consul between two dignitaries. (ivory dip- 
TYCH, 5TH CENTURY) 1 . . . . . l66 



. 



1 Reproduced by permission of the Arundel Society. 

2 Reproduced from Boecking's A r oiiiia Dignitatum, 

3 Reproduced from Cohen's Description historique des Monnaies 
frapphs sous V Empire Romain. 



List of Illustrations.. xix 

PAGE 

HEADS OF SARAPIS AND ISIS. REVERSE \ ISIS AND 

NEPHTHYS FACE TO FACE. (COIN OF JULIAN) * 169 
HEAD OF HELIOS. (COIN OF RHODES) . . 1 69 

ASKLEPIOS. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 2D OR 3D CENTURY) 2 186 
HYGIEIA. (iVORY DIPTYCH, 2D OR 3D CENTURY) 2 188 
COIN OF SMYRNA. (HEAD OF CYBELE) . . . I90 

HEADS OF SARAPIS AND ISIS. (COIN OF JULIAN AND 

HELEN — SO-CALLED.) REVERSE : VOTA PUBLIC A, 

ISIS WITH SISTRUM AND VASE * I93 

HEAD OF ISIS PHARIA. REVERSE : ISIS PHARIA ON A 

GALLEY. (COIN OF HELEN) a .... 216 
CYBELE IN HER CHARIOT, DRAWN BY LIONS. (COIN 

OF SMYRNA, IMPERIAL TIMES) . . . . 2l8 

COIN OF JULIAN. REVERSE : ISIS SUCKLING HORUS J 242 
COIN OF HELEN, MOTHER OF CONSTANTINE. REVERSE: 

SECURITAS REIPUBLIC/E . . . . .245 

TYCHE OF TARSUS IMPERIAL TIMES. (a COIn) . 245 

COIN OF CONSTATS I., 1 AND COIN OF ANTIOCH. (viC- ' 

TORY) . . . . . . . . 262 

COIN OF SMYRNA (CYBELE ON HER THRONE), AND 

COIN OF TARSUS (IMPERIAL TIMES) . . . 262 

HEAD OF ISIS PHARIA, COIN OF NISIBIS (IMPERIAL 

TIMES), AND COIN OF TARSUS .... 262 ' 
MEDAL OF MAXIMIAN. HEAD WITH ATTRIBUTES OF 

HERACLES. REVERSE : THREE FEMALE FIGURES 

WITH CORNUCOPIA 268 



3 



PRIMITIVE ORGAN . . . . . . . 272 

A POET OR PHILOSOPHER (POSSIBLY A CYNIC). (iVORY 

DIPTYCH, 4TH OR 5TH CENTURY) 2 . . . 286 

1 Reproduced from Cohen's Description hisiorique des Monnaies 
frapp e'es sous V Empire Romain. 

2 Reproduced by permission of the Arundel Society. 

3 Reproduced from Hopkins's History of the Organ. Messrs. 
Robert Cocks & Co. 



XX List of Illustrations. 



medallion of constantine the great. re- 
verse i seated figures receiving trophy 
and gifts ...... . 292 

coins of antioch, a goddess in her temple (im- 
perial times), and tyche of the city . 295 
statue of antioch and the orontes . . 296 

the cilician gates* 298 

coin of antioch, tyche of the city. reverse : 

a spray (of laurel ?) 312 

coin of sapor ii., of persia. reverse : fire- 
altar with worshippers .... 314 

map of mesopotamia ...... 3 

persian battle-scene. (from a bas-relief) 1 . t> 22 

coin of jovian 335 

coin of valentinian the elder. reverse : em- 
peror holding standard and victory 1 . 337 
an ancient gateway of tarsus* . . . 342 
the tomb of jovinus at rheims (from a photo- 
GRAPH) 346 

COIN OF VALENS AND VALENTINIAN 2 . . . 355 



14 1 

16' 



/ 



* From a photograph by Mr. Collinson. 

1 Reproduced, by permission, from Rawlinson's Seventh Monarchy. 

2 Reproduced from Cohen's Description historique des Monnaies 
f rappees sous V Empire Romain. 




Coin of Constantinople : age of Constantine. Reverse, victoria avc : 
Victory on the prow of a galley. 



JULIAN, 



PHILOSOPHER AND EMPEROR. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ROMAN WORLD UNDER CONSTANTINE. 
305-337- 

" The time is out of joint, O cursed spite 

That ever I was born to set it right ! " — Hamlet, i., 5. 

" oXiyov Ssiv aitavra ditErpditrj diet ds rtfv rwv 
Qegdv svjueveiav 6GoC > 6fi£§<x itavTEi." — Julian, Ep. 7. 

URING the early years of the fourth 



century of our era, the fortunes of 
Q iSHS Hf ^^ e Graeco-Roman world were con- 
siderably modified by the frank and 
official recognition of three facts, 
gjgS^gafcjgjj which hitherto, though patent to 
thoughtful observers, had been more 
or less successfully hidden, under a mass of venerable 
fictions, from the eyes of the people at large. 1 



1 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

The first of these three facts was that the govern- 
ment of the Roman Empire had ceased to be a 
republic. 

The second was that the Eternal City of Rome 
was no longer the one centre of the whole political 
system. 

The third was that the worship of the ancient 
gods of Greece and Rome, neither in its earlier and 
simpler forms, nor in its later combinations with 
Oriental mythology and ritual and with theosophic 
accretions from the schools, could any longer be 
regarded as the religion of the people and their 
rulers. 

The recognition of these three momentous facts 
was not simultaneous nor made by one person. It 
may be regarded as representing the chief lines of 
the policy followed by the Emperors Diocletian and 
Constantine. Yet Diocletian was so far from recog- 
nising the inevitable character of the religious revo- 
lution going on in the Empire, that his reign marks 
the last effort to check by stern persecution the ris- 
ing tide of Christianity. In political and military 
affairs, on the other hand, some of the changes 
made by these great Emperors had been anticipated 
by others of earlier date. Thus the great soldier- 
Emperor, Aurelian, in his brief reign of less than five 
years (a. D. 270-275), had inaugurated several of 
the changes adopted during the succeeding period. 
But the reforms of the years with which we are now 
occupied are sufficiently homogeneous, and were 
carried out within a short enough period of time to 
enable us to draw here a line separating two his- 



3371 The Romdn World under Constantine. 3 

torical epochs, which some German historians dis- 
tinguish as that of the Princedom and that of the 
Absolute Monarchy. 

It is, of course, far beyond our present purpose to 
examine and narrate, even in barest outline, the 
external fortunes and the internal developments of 
the Empire under the rule of Constantine and his 
immediate predecessors. Such a task would require 
powers equal to those of the great English historian 
who has written of this time, and whose work, in 
spite of its blemishes is not likely to be soon 
superseded. For although in many of our modern 
writers of history we may reasonably look for a more 
judicial impartiality, for a more scrupulous accuracy 
in detail, and for a greater breadth of sympathy, we 
should hardly dare to expect from the pen of any 
one of them as weighty, as impressive, and as inspir- 
ing a work as that of Edward Gibbon. Of late 
years, however, while some learned French and 
German writers have endeavoured to follow in 
Gibbon's footsteps, taking up his great subject as a 
whole, useful work has also been done by more 
special investigators of various nations who have 
restricted their labours to one or other of the sec- 
tions into which that vast field may be divided. 
Those who would master the history of the Roman 
Empire, if not endowed with colossal powers, must 
adopt the maxim of the Romans themselves, and 
divide that they may conquer. But here the 
biographer finds his task simpler than that of 
the historian ; for him the division is ready-made, 
and his standpoint is definitely marked. He has to 



4 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. L305 

regard all the historical events of his period solely as 
constituting the environment in which his hero 
lived and laboured. Thus for us, in our present 
study, no more of the Roman world and of contem- 
porary history has to be considered than is absolutely 
essential for those who would understand the life 
and character of Julian. 

Julian's career was greatly influenced by the 
recognition of the three great changes. It exhibits 
in a striking manner the dominant tendencies of the 
age, tendencies against which, for the most part, 
Julian felt himself bound to maintain a vigorous 
resistance. Not that he was unwilling to follow the 
policy of his predecessors in so far as it was condu- 
cive to the energetic defence and the efficient admin- 
istration of the Empire. But in his quick sympathy 
with the aspirations of past ages, and his entire devo- 
tion to ideas which had ceased to sway the minds of 
men, Julian felt himself out of harmony with the 
world in which he lived, and thus he came to throw 
all his powers and affections into the scale of 
reaction. Perhaps some English and American 
readers, to whom the cause of progress and the 
cause of the right may seem to be identical, would 
regard the phrase " a reactionary hero," as a contra- 
diction in terms. Whether or no Julian deserves to 
be called a hero, we may be better able to judge at 
the close of our enquiry. Here we would only say 
that the fact of his being a reactionary ought not 
unduly to prejudice us against him at the outset. 
For even if the upward progress of mankind were as 
sure and as steady as some optimistic philosophers 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 5 

would have us believe, yet such philosophers cannot 
deny that in the course of the march some good 
things are often dropped by the way, in order, per- 
haps, that yet better things, incompatible with the 
older, may be securely grasped. And if this is so, 
the passing generation has no right to undervalue 
the services of those who would call its attention, 
sometimes, perhaps in overstrained and querulous 
tones, to the glories of the treasures which are being 
lost, but of which, perchance, some fragments may 
yet be recovered. 

Now each of the three changes, or acknowledgments 
of change, which we have to consider, was abhorrent 
to the mind and character of Julian. Hating pomp 
and show, impatient of the petty, hampering rules of 
Court etiquette, constantly dwelling in thought on 
the ancient glories of democratic Athens and sena- 
torial Rome, he could hardly view the orientalising 
and inordinate exaltation of the Imperial dignity in 
the light of a reform. Yet his almost single-handed 
efforts to revive the great days of the Roman Senate 
and of Greek municipal freedom were not productive 
of very great results, either for good or for evil. Of 
Rome herself, in spite of an antiquarian deference, 
he was not as zealous a champion as he was of the 
Graeco-Roman culture which seemed to be bound up 
in its fortunes with those of the great Empire, 
threatened as both were in his day by adversaries on 
the border and by discontented classes and nations 
within. A prince whose two chief victories were 
gained one on the Rhine and the other on the Tigris, 
who devoted equal care to the military maintenance 



6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

of Roman defences and to the verbal championship 
of Greek letters and ideas, may certainly be regarded 
as having done his part in keeping up the integrity ' 
of the Empire. As to the change in spiritual condi- 
tions, this was to him not merely an adverse element 
of the environment in which he had to work ; it was 
the destruction of all that he held dear and believed 
to be most necessary for the common good. He 
felt bound to prevent such a destruction at any cost, 
or to perish in the attempt. 

To avoid vagueness, let us now consider very 
briefly, and in relation to the main subject of our 
narrative, how these great changes, political and re- 
ligious, were being brought about, and what was the 
exact significance of each one of the three. 

I. Gibbon has defined the government of Au- 
gustus and his successors as " an absolute monarchy 
disguised by the forms of a commonwealth." To 
investigate the character of the monarchy and the 
methods of its disguise does not belong to our pres- 
ent task. All who have even a slight acquaintance 
with the history of the Roman Empire have read how 
after the comparatively prosperous days of the Anto- 
nines, the real power came into the hands of a vio- 
lent and rapacious soldiery, destitute of national feel- 
ing, impatient of any attempts to enforce order and 
discipline. Anarchy within and perpetual hostilities 
on the frontier had brought the fortunes of the Em- 
pire to a low ebb, when there arose a succession of 
strong rulers, beginning with Claudius II., an ances- 
tor of Julian (268-270, A. D.), who were capable of 
restoring discipline, of beating back insolent invaders, 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 7 

and of taking steps towards the consolidation of the 
Empire. Still, the Imperial finances were on the 
Verge of bankruptcy, and the Imperial defence in des- 
perate need of a thorough reorganisation, when, in 
285 A.D., Diocletian was called to the throne. This 
great Emperor, whose deep and powerful nature 
has been somewhat of an enigma to all historians, 
was not a Roman nor even an Italian by birth, but a 
Dalmatian of low descent, and was perhaps the bet- 
ter able to effect the necessary reforms in that he was 
but lightly bound by the traditions of the past. When 
he had overcome the rebellions that disturbed the 
earlier years of his reign, he devoted his energies to 
a series of administrative arrangements that should 
bring all parts of the Empire more directly under the 
control of the autocratic ruler, should increase the 
resources of the government, and diminish opportuni- 
ties for usurpation and insurrection. He judged it 
expedient to surround the Imperial person with all 
the pomp and ceremony of Oriental monarchy, to in- 
sist that subjects admitted to his presence should kneel 
and kiss the border of his purple robe ; he assumed 
the title of Dominus, and accepted even that of Deus. 
The great functionaries of old time, the Consuls, had 
long ceased^to have any but an ornamental existence. 
The Senate had lost all legislative power, and all 
freedom of speech. Imperial edicts and Imperial 
rescripts were the only forms of legislative action. 
The Emperor was supreme over the legislative, judi- 
cial, and administrative systems. His Court officials, 
especially the Master of the Offices, were among 
the greatest functionaries. His private fortune was 



8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

hardly to be distinguished from the public treasure. 
His Council of State was presided over by an officer of 
his Court. The pompous and ceremonious etiquette 
with which Diocletian and his successors surrounded 
themselves was extended to all who took part in the 
government. The ranks in which men of high 
standing were placed — the Illustres, the Spectabiles, 
the Clarissimi, etc. — were clearly defined and 
minutely observed. The nobility was for the most 
part of an official rather than of an hereditary 
character. Even the title of Patrician became un- 
der Constantine a merely personal distinction. In 
the lower grades of society trade and industry were 
fettered, and individual enterprise and liberty were re- 
duced to a minimum by compulsory hereditary mem- 
bership in the various corporations (of ship-owners 
down to those of bakers and chalk-burners) which 
enjoyed the privilege of carrying on their business 
in return for heavy dues rendered to the state. 
Under the all-powerful and ubiquitous authority of 
the Emperor, the administration was bureaucratic, 
and generally carried on by men who had begun 
their career with the study and practice of the law. 
The disorders of later times had often proceeded 
from the inordinate power of successful generals. 
A remedy to this danger was found in the diminu- 
tion of the powers that could be held by any one 
man. The Praetorian Prsefects who had at one time 
been at the head of the army and also of the judica- 
ture were, under Constantine, deprived of all mili- 
tary command. As an able modern historian has 
said, 2 " the separation of the civil from the military 




A WARRIOR (THEODOSIUS?). 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 9 

power becomes the foundation and corner-stone of 
the new administrative organisation." 

This organisation was based on the division of the 
Empire into fairly large administrative areas, called 
Dioceses. Of these there were seven in the eastern 
and five in the western portion of the Empire, each 
under the rule of a Vicar, except such as came under 
the direct authority of the Prcetorian Prcefects, of 
whom we find two under Diocletian, four under 
Constantine. The Provinces which went to make 
up the Dioceses had their own governors, who gen- 
erally bore the title of Prcesides, and it seems to 
have been in the interest not only of the public 
peace but also of the comfort of the provincials, 
that a regulation was passed forbidding such office 
to be held by a native of the province over which 
the rule was to be exercised. The military govern- 
ors who held command on the borders and else- 
where, and who generally bore the names Duces and 
Comites, had, as already stated, no connection with 
the civil administration. The army was not in any 
sense national in character. Some of the best regi- 
ments of the Guards were of barbarian race, and the 
defence of the borders was often entrusted to alien 
settlers, who held their land on a kind of military 
tenure. 

II. The shifting, so to speak, of the centre of 
gravity of the Empire was a result gradually neces- 
sitated by a long course of events. The privileges 
of Roman citizenship, so ardently coveted and jeal- 
ously guarded during the later days of the Republic, 
had been by degrees extended with ever increasing 



io Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

liberality, till by an edict passed some time in the 
reign of Caracalla (211-217, A.D.) they were granted 
to all free-born subjects of the Empire. Italy her- 
self had been reluctantly subjected to the necessity 
of paying the land-tax formerly required from 
provincials only, and Rome, though retaining her 
municipal officers, saw, with the decline of the power 
of the Senate, the reduction of her prerogative to a 
level little above that claimed by some other lead- 
ing cities of the Empire. Thus for instance Diocle- 
tian undertook measures for supplying to Alexan- 
dria the corn and other necessaries which the 
government had always secured to the capital. 
Diocletian himself had no capital, in the sense of a 
permanent royal residence, though Milan and Nico- 
media were frequent resorts of himself and his col- 
leagues, and as royal abodes enjoyed the munificence 
he loved to display in public buildings and shows. 
Even the founding of a new royal residence on the 
Bosphorus, one of the most notable acts of Constan- 
tine (about 330 A.D.), was probably not the result of 
a direct design against the dignity of Old Rome. 
The curious legend that Constantine abandoned the 
ancient city to the government of its bishops, is, of 
course, a fiction of much later times. Yet the facts 
remain that Constantinople did become politically a 
successful rival to Rome, and that the power of the 
Roman bishop was greatly increased by the unique 
position in which the act of Constantine had placed 
him. 

Again, though the tendency to separation be- 
tween East and West was furthered by the found- 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 1 

ing of a new residence in eastern lands and also by 
local separation in administration, yet it would be 
a mistake to suppose that any so-called division, 
effected by Diocletian or by any of his successors, 
was intended to create two or more states out of 
one. When, in 286 A.D., Diocletian associated Max- 
imian with him as Augustus ; when, soon afterwards, 
he adopted as his son, and forced Maximian also to 
adopt, a young Caesar who should be regarded as 
the colleague and heir of each Augustus respectively, 
there was still no notion that the Empire itself was 
to be divided. Laws still ran in the names of both 
Emperors, and titles of honour were borne by both 
alike. Even in much later days, at the division 
made on the death of Theodosius (in 395), there 
was no project of establishing two entirely distinct 
and separate governments, and one may almost say 
that the final division into East and West became 
permanent by accident. Nevertheless, in any state, 
and especially in an absolute monarchy, two sover- 
eigns imply two Courts and two administrative 
centres, and if there be already any tendency to 
political separation (due to differences in religion, 
in language, or in national character), such tendency 
must needs be strengthened and hastened in its 
operation by the sharing of the supreme authority 
among two or more colleagues. 

But Diocletian's plans even for a personal division 
of Imperial authority and functions were doomed to 
failure. In 305 he and Maximian, his colleague 
in the title of Augustus, abdicated, and their places 
should, according to preconceived plans, have been 



1 2 "Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

filled by the two Caesars, who again should have 
been assisted and afterwards succeeded by two more 
regularly appointed Caesars. The practical result, 
however, was a general scramble, a series of usurpa- 
tions, and a destructive civil war. At one time six 
persons simultaneously asserted, and to some extent 
maintained, claims to the Imperial authority. But 
in the course of a few years, most of the pretenders 
had fallen in the field or otherwise disappeared from 
the scene. In 324 Constantine was sole master 
of the undivided Empire, and although he subse- 
quently conferred the title of Ccesar, with some of 
the administrative functions pertaining thereto, on 
three of his sons and on some other relations, he 
maintained a position of supreme authority until his 
death in 337, when, as we shall see, a new division 
of territorial powers was accomplished. At that 
time Julian was about seven years old. 

III. The relations of Diocletian and Constan- 
tine to the Christian Church, the semi-Christian 
sects, and the cults of Paganism, and the causes 
which determined those relations, form a large and 
attractive field of study. Here we can only notice 
a few points of immediate interest and importance. 

Diocletian, though certainly not cruel by nature, 
nor unsusceptible to the softening and civilising in- 
fluences of his time, was the last of the great per- 
secutors of the Christians. The first objects of his 
rigorous measures were the Manichees, whose doc- 
trine seems to have been a strange medley of Chris- 
tian teaching with the tenets of the old Persian 
dualism as to the everlasting strife between the 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 3 

powers of light and of darkness. It was not till 
comparatively late in his reign that the Christians, 
after a considerable time of security and of grow- 
ing influence, felt his heavy hand. In 303 ap- 
peared the great persecuting edict, which ordered 
all churches and Christian books to be destroyed, 
and all Christians holding office at Court to take 
part in some heathen sacrifice, or else give up 
their civil and political rights. A second edict was 
specially directed against the Christian clergy. A 
third, in 304 affected Christians generally ; all who 
refused to do sacrifice were made liable to imprison- 
ment and torture. 

The motives of Diocletian are, of course, not easy 
to discover. He may have thought that the celi- 
bacy, asceticism, and indifference to public affairs 
professed by some of the Christians were detrimental 
to the material and military interests of the state. 
This might at least easily account for his harshness 
to the Manichees. Or he may have considered the 
organisation of the Church, as it grew more power- 
ful and spread more widely, likely to interfere with 
his administrative reforms. Or he may have been 
actuated, as was most probably his Caesar, Galerius, 
by a genuine fear lest the decay of the old worships 
should alienate the favour of the heavenly powers. 
However this may have been, the persecution of 
Diocletian was short and sharp. Even before his 
abdication, in 305, it had considerably slackened, 
and the rivalry of the contending claimants to 
authority was favourable to Christian interests. Two 
of these claimants, Constantius Chlorus and his 



14 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

son Constantine, have often been represented as 
already attached to the Christian faith. With re- 
gard to Constantius (who died in 306) this seems by 
no means probable, though the Christianity of his 
wife Helen, the mother of Constantine, is beyond 
doubt. With Constantine himself the case is some- 
what different, yet we should greatly err if we at- 
tributed to him, now or at any time of his life, the 
Christian zeal which was leading barbarian chiefs 
to abandon and to cause their people to abandon 
the superstition of their fathers. Constantius and 
Constantine seem both to have been philosophical 
monotheists, and their position in this respect was, 
as we shall see later on, quite compatible with con- 
formity, even with sincere and devout attention, to 
ancient pagan rites and usages. The story of the vi- 
sion of the Cross with the inscription, " By this sign 
conquer," is not now generally accepted as historical, 
and does not accord with what we know of the 
character and position of Constantine. A few his- 
torians have regarded as due to Christian influence 
the greater severity shown in the laws which bear 
his name against crimes of impurity ; but some legis- 
lation on behalf of morality in this sense was begun 
by Diocletian, and the dealings of Constantine, 
especially with his ill-fated eldest son, are hardly 
to be viewed as uniformly those of a strictly moral 
and religious man. We may add that he postponed 
his baptism till he was at the point of death. It is 
also of great importance to observe that Christian 
and pagan symbols occur together on his coins till 
towards the close of his reign. 3 




A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO COLUMNS. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 5 

But whether a Christian or not, Constantine was 
a statesman, who hated all sources of division, and 
wished to unite all factions in loyal obedience to the 
Government. He was also by no means unsusceptible 
to religious impressions, or unaware of the importance 
of the spiritual factor in men's minds and lives. His 
edicts generally show a tolerant and liberal spirit, 
and his letters to contending ecclesiastics, if not 
always wise, are refreshingly redolent of a lay 
mind, — perhaps a rather blunt one. It seems most 
probable that, if circumstances had permitted, Con- 
stantine would have taken up and maintained an 
attitude of entire neutrality in all religious questions. 
The First Edict of Toleration, drawn up with the 
consent of the two colleagues (311 A. D.), which 
granted freedom of worship and commanded all 
men to pray for the Emperor, seems to show a dread 
lest pernicious results should follow the cessation of 
all worship on the part of those who were forbidden 
to exercise their proper cult. This view is yet more 
prominent in the Second Edict of Toleration, issued 
by Constantine and Licinius from Milan in 313, 
which granted complete freedom to the Christians, 
and promised the restoration of such churches as 
had been seized. The Emperors regard the granting 
of these privileges as a pious act, but they do not 
seem, if we judge from the words of the statute, to 
consider themselves as standing within the pale of 
the Christian Church. 

Other laws of Constantine in favour of the Chris- 
tians may be interpreted in accordance with the view 
that he desired to remain entirely neutral and 



1 6 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

tolerant. The grant made to the Christian clergy of 
privileges similar to those enjoyed by the pagan 
priests seems consistent with this policy, and even 
the regulation for the observance of Sunday {Dies 
Solis) may have a bearing on the worship of Mithras 
as well as on the Christian holiday. The prohibition 
of sacrifices, however, though probably not strictly 
enforced, as well as the decided position assumed by 
the Emperor in ecclesiastical disputes, and also the 
Christian education which his children seem to have 
received, point to the fact that strict neutrality had 
proved impossible, and that the Empire must hence- 
forth reckon with the Church either as a close ally 
or as a powerful and dangerous foe. 

In two great controversies, we see the Imperial 
power invoked and applied. In 313, the secular 
authority was appealed to by the faction of the 
Donatists. The real grounds of dispute in this case 
and the nature of the principles involved are not 
perfectly clear. The immediate cause of disaffection 
was a disputed election to the Bishopric of Carthage. 
The question was complicated by a controversy as 
to the rightful status in the Church of those who 
had not held firm during the late persecutions. 
Constantine evidently regarded the cause of Donatus 
as that of insurrection and disorder, and therefore 
gave all the weight of his personal and Imperial 
authority to the suppression of the party that main- 
tained it. It is a notable fact that he committed the 
enquiry to the Bishop of Rome. The efforts made, 
however, on behalf of peace and unity were not 
effectual. The Donatist sect continued for some 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 7 

time an existence of violent and disorderly opposi- 
tion to ecclesiastical authority. 

The next occasion of Imperial intervention is of 
far greater interest, and had much more widely 
reaching results. The controversy between Athan- 
asius and Arius presents great difficulties to the 
modern student ; partly from the subtle discrimina- 
tion required in those who have to discover the facts 
of the case from documents inspired by party hatred ; 
partly from the extraordinary effort of historical im- 
agination demanded of any person who would really 
put himself in the position of the metaphysical Alex- 
andrians of the fourth century. We may, however, 
endeavour here to sketch in very brief outline the 
chief external events of the conflict, especially with 
reference to the indications they afford of the rela- 
tions between the Church and the Empire. 4 

At the time when the great controversy first arose, 
the episcopal see of Alexandria was occupied by 
Bishop Alexander, a man apparently of no very 
extraordinary strength of character, but capable of 
taking up a very decided position through the influ- 
ence of his secretary, the deacon Athanasius. Now 
Athanasius was a born ruler of men. He was also 
an Alexandrian of the Alexandrians, and as we shall 
see later on, the air of that city was, so to speak, 
impregnated with theological ideas of a highly meta- 
physical kind. .His own belief was early formed and 
tenaciously held through life. His work on The 
Incarnation of the Logos seems to date from a time 
previous to the great dispute. Arius, an elder con- 
temporary of Athanasius, was a presbyter in the 



1 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

Alexandrian Church, but by birth a Libyan, and had 
derived his education from Antioch, a city which 
generally represents an essentially different school 
of thought from that of Alexandria. The first con- 
troversy in which Arius was concerned arose as to 
the relative positions which should be held by 
bishops and presbyters. But the great Christological 
dispute soon made the other sink into insignifi- 
cance. 

The doctrine of Arius brought upon him and his 
followers the denunciations of Bishop Alexander, 
and a sentence of excommunication against them 
and of condemnation against their teachers which 
was passed by a synod of about a hundred bishops ; 
yet it was not in form exactly like any modern 
denial of the divinity of Christ. The distinctive 
creed of Arianism may best be stated in the words : 
" there was once a time when the Son of God was 
not." After this doctrine and its upholders had 
been condemned, Arius used such means to gain 
partisans and to work towards his re-instatement as 
brought down the wrath of his opponents. In par- 
ticular he is said to have tried to gain over the 
populace by embodying his doctrines in softly melo- 
dious verse, and he seems to have used in the inter- 
ests of his party the jealous rivalry felt by various 
cities against Alexandria. The dissensions soon 
assumed dangerous proportions. 

Now the Emperor Constantine was neither a theo- 
logian nor a metaphysician, but from the standpoint 
of a statesman, and of one duly appreciative of the 
connection between unity in the Church and quiet in 




A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO COLUMNS. 
IVORY DIPTYCH. 



337] The Roman World under Constantine. 1 9 

the State, he was bound to hate and suppress, if pos- 
sible, everything that tended in either sphere to fac- 
tion and disorder. On hearing of the dissensions, 
he first endeavoured to pour oil on the troubled 
waters by exhorting both parties to come to an 
agreement. When his letters and commissions had 
proved ineffectual, he took a step of momentous 
import in its consequences and summoned the 
(Ecumenical Council which met at Nicaea in Bi- 
thynia in June, 325. At this council he was present, 
and in spite of his professions of humility, there can 
be no doubt that his influence was strongly felt. If 
at first, as seems probable, he intended to hold the 
balance between the contending parties, he was soon 
led, by motives into which we cannot now enquire, 
to support the policy of those who were most anx- 
ious to avoid all compromise and to find a symbol 
the rejection of which might brand the holders of 
the Arian doctrine as heretics. This symbol was the 
term Homoousios (rendered in the English version : 
" being of one substance with the Father,") and it 
was accepted by all present except the African 
bishops, though the Bishops of Nicomedia and Nicaea 
refused to accept the accompanying anathema against 
dissentients. 

Athanasius and those who held with him seemed 
to have triumphed ; Arius and his adherents were 
banished. Yet soon afterwards a reaction set in, 
mainly owing to the efforts of Eusebius, Bishop first 
of Nicomedia and afterwards of Constantinople, the 
ablest and most statesmanlike leader of the party. 
The Emperor returned to his previous attitude of 



20 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [305- 

neutrality, and sent for Arius, who satisfied him by 
presenting a confession of faith from which the 
crucial word was omitted. Meanwhile, Athanasius 
had succeeded to Alexander, as Bishop (or Patriarch) 
of Alexandria, and he was now ordered by Con- 
stantine to reinstate the banished Arians. This, 
however, Athanasius persistently refused to do. 
And however much the modern reader may re- 
gret the want of forbearance and of kindliness 
on both sides during this unhappy struggle, it 
is refreshing to find that there lived at least one 
man who dared in the name of law and order to 
oppose the arbitrary command of the great autocrat. 
The spirit of liberty and independence had not en- 
tirely taken flight from among men. 

We cannot enter into the charges brought against 
Athanasius by his enemies. They appear gener- 
ally to have been of a malicious or of a trivial nature. 
Summoned to the Imperial Court, he maintained his 
ground, and was sent back to his diocese without 
dishonour. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the 
Emperor changed once more, and Athanasius was 
forced to attend the Synod of Tyre, where his oppo- 
nents had the upper hand. Having no hope of obtain- 
ing justice, he left the city, came to Constantinople, 
and boldly confronting the Emperor in the street, 
demanded an investigation of his cause. His re- 
quest was partially granted, but the Emperor con- 
sented still, perhaps cherishing a hope of restoring 
peace and order, that Athanasius should be exiled to 
Treves. Arius was invited to Constantinople, and 
though he died suddenly just before the time ap- 



337] The Roman World under Constantine, 2 1 

pointed for his restoration to the Church, his faction, 
or rather a faction based chiefly on his teaching, 
prevailed generally through the rest of the reign of 
Constantine and during the period which followed. 
Athanasius recovered his see for a time on the death 
of Constantine, but had to go into exile once more 
from 341 to 346, and yet again from 356 to 361. 

Some biographers of Julian would attribute con- 
siderable importance to the fact that during the 
years of his education and at the dawn of his intelli- 
gence, not the Catholic but theArian party and doc- 
trine were in the ascendant. We shall perhaps see 
cause to doubt this importance, but another fact 
should certainly be noted in this connection ; that the 
activity of the Imperial authority in settling religi- 
ous disputes afforded a precedent for decided inter- 
vention on the part of an Emperor of widely different 
views and character from those of Constantine. The 
earlier Emperors had exercised some sacerdotal func- 
tions and had held the office of Pontifex Maximus. 
In days when theological strife ran high, the relig- 
ious professions of the monarch were by no means 
unimportant. 

This brief survey may leave on our minds the im- 
pression that the age with which we have to deal is 
not strikingly heroic in character. In the state we 
have an absolute monarchy served by a sordid 
bureaucracy ; in society, ranks and cliques, close cor- 
porations, and a grinding, benumbing system of 
supervision and taxation ; in art and letters, little 
originality, a love of words, a paucity of ideas ; in the 
Church, distractions and bitter divisions. Yet below 



2 2 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [305-337 

the surface, forces were at work which bore in them 
the seed of better days. And those who could not 
reach forward into the future might escape from the 
ignoble present to rejoice in the greatness of the 
past, for they had within their grasp all the treas- 
ures of ancient civilisation, the literature and the 
monuments of older and grander times. What 
wonder if a sense of the worth of those treasures and 
of the poverty of contemporary life should force into 
the ranks of reaction one at least of the most eager 
and aspiring minds of the age ? 




Coin of Rome : age of Constantine. Reverse, Shepherd discovering Romulus, 
Remus, and the she-wolf. 



Notes on Chapter I. 23 



NOTES ON CHAPTER I. 

1 It is, perhaps, unnecessary to specify, as it would be a lengthy 
business to discuss, the different sources which might be referred to 
as affording material for this sketch. The political and social state 
of the Empire at this time is set forth very clearly and thoroughly by 
Hermann Schiller in the third book of his Geschichte der Romischen 
Kaiser zeit. For ecclesiastical affairs, the general reader may be re- 
ferred to Professor Gwatkin's little book on The Arian Controversy 
in the Epochs of Church History and to the translation of Gieseler's 
Ecclesiastical History, or to Cheetham's Early Church History. 
Also I would express my appreciation of Bohringer's Athanasius 
and Arius. Tillemont is, of course, a mine of wealth to students 
of this period. Gibbon is, or should be, the universal introducer 
to the subject. 

2 Schiller: Gesch. der Rom. Kaiser zeit, bk. iii., ch. I, section 5. 

3 Schiller : Gesch. der Rom. Kaiserzeit, bk. iii., ch. 3. 

4 Perhaps, for the sake of any readers unacquainted with Church 
history, it maybe permitted here to make two remarks : (1) That 
Arianism in its original form is as different as possible from modern 
Unitarianism. Channing or Martineau could no more easily have 
subscribed the creed which Arius professed than they could have 
accepted the Nicene. (2) The Quicunque vult, commonly called 
the " Creed of St. Athanasius," was not drawn up by him, but origi- 
nated in the West, at a much later date. The real " Creed of St. 
Athanasius " is the original Nicene, (not precisely the one so-called 
by us), for which he contested manfully all his days. 




Gold Medallion of Constans I. Reverse, salus et spes reipublicae ; 
Constantine, Constans, and Constantius standing. 



CHAPTER II. 

PARENTAGE OF JULIAN. HIS BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD. 
CAREER AND END OF HIS BROTHER GALLUS. 



331-354. 

" Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up 
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear." 

Wordsworth. 

"'EvTeryKS juoi dsivoi ek 7taidoov tgov avycov rov Qeov 
['Hkiov] rtoQos." Julian, Or. iv., 130. 

LAVIUS CLAUDIUS JULIANUS 
was born, according to the generally 
received account, in or near Constanti- 
nople l in the year 331 A. D. a As the 
changes which made this city in a sense 
the capital of the East were completed 
about 330, his birth and that of New 

Rome may be regarded as almost exactly coincident 

in time. 

24 




331-354] Parentage of Julian. 25 

The full name which Julian bore, but which is 
rarely mentioned, is a combination of several family 
names. The old Roman custom by which every 
man bore three names, that of the individual, of the 
gens, and of the family respectively, had long broken 
down, at least in the case of Imperial families. The 
prcenomen (such as Marcus, Gaius, and the like) had 
dropped out of use, and though the nomen or name 
of the gens was retained, it was eclipsed by the 
names belonging to illustrious and distantly related 
gentes or families with which it was desirable to as- 
sert kinship. Thus, in Julian's case, the Flavius was 
a gentile name inherited from Constantius Chlorus, 
the Claudius was adopted by Constantine's family to 
bring them into connection with the Thracian Em- 
peror, Claudius Gothicus (see Genealogical Table), 
and the Julianus was bestowed upon him by his 
maternal grandfather, who bore the same name 
himself. 

A glance at the accompanying genealogical table 
will make Julian's relations to the other members of 
the Imperial family much clearer than a lengthy de- 
scription could do. Of his father, Julius Constan- 
tius, son of Constantius Chlorus and of Theodora, 
step-daughter to the Emperor Maximian, we know 
very little. Libanius remarks that though (in con- 
sequence presumably of his legitimate birth and 
royal descent) he had a better right to the Empire 
than his brother who actually obtained it, he yet 
preferred to remain loyal to Constantine and to live 
on friendly terms with him. This observation shows 
either a confusion of mind or an affectation of igno- 



26 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. \zz\- 

rance on the part of the sophist of Antioch with re- 
gard to the elective character of the Empire, and it 
is not without interest as pointing to the growth of 
a dynastic idea and policy in the Imperial family. 
In a fragment of a letter 3 from Julian to the Co- 
rinthians, we find it stated that his father found re- 
pose in their city after a season of many wanderings. 
Julius Constantius was married twice, at least, and 
both his wives seem to have been ladies of good 
family and of considerable fortune. Basilina, the 
mother of Julian, was of the powerful and wealthy 
family of the Anicii. Her father, Anicius Julianus, 
was Praetorian Praefect at the time of the struggle 
between Maxentius and Constantine, and though he 
was on the losing side, he retained life and property 
under the conqueror. 4 

It seems probable that Julian owed more, both by 
inheritance and by influence, to his relations on the 
mother's side than to those on the father's. He 
bore, as we have seen, his grandfather's name, and 
this same grandfather provided for his early educa- 
tion. We have more than one reference in his let- 
ters to the property of his grandmother (almost 
certainly his maternal grandmother), and especially 
to a delightful little estate in Bithynia, in which he 
took pleasure from the days of his early boyhood. 5 
The one kinsman to whom he writes as if expecting 
sympathy in his religious intentions (even before 
they were publicly declared) is his uncle Julian, in 
whom he also reposed political trust. 6 And beyond 
all this, we know that Basilina herself was educated 
in Greek literature, and thus it was probably to 




GAMES IN CIRCUS. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



354] His Birth and Childhood. 27 

her that Julian owed his strong literary aspirations. 
Tastes like his are not prominent in his father's 
family, and are conspicuously absent from the dis- 
position of his half-brother Gallus. 

In affording to women opportunities of acquiring 
a good education, social influence, and scope for 
various kinds of activity, the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies of our era were more favourable than many 
other periods more brilliant and in some respects 
more morally sound. 

Basilina's tutor was a certain eunuch, Mardonius, 
with whom she used to read Homer and Hesiod. 
Julian calls him a Scythian, but this title is used in 
the vaguest way by all writers of our period. A 
story is told of her, 7 that a little while before her 
son was born, she dreamed that she had given birth 
to Achilles. This is probably as mythical as most 
legends which gather round the birth and early days 
of great men, but if there is any truth in it, the 
dream probably followed a reading in the Iliad with 
Mardonius. But whatever Julian may have derived 
from his mother must have been physically inher- 
ited, not consciously imparted. Very soon after the 
birth of her only child, she was, in his words, " with- 
drawn in the bloom of youth from many sufferings 
by the Motherless Maiden-goddess." 8 Such a loss 
to a child of Julian's eager and susceptible tempera- 
ment, and in his isolated position, was quite irre- 
parable. 

For while Julian was struggling through his 
motherless infancy, being probably brought up in his 
father's house in Constantinople, events were occur- 



28 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 

ring which gave a peculiar colour to his whole life. 
In 337, Constantine the Great died at Nicomedia in 
Bithynia, after vainly trying a water cure at the 
neighbouring baths of Helenopolis. Now the policy 
of Constantine's later years was distinctly dynastic 
in character. Before his death, he arranged for a 
partition of the Imperial dominions among his sur- 
viving sons, and he included in this arrangement the 
two sons of his half-brother Dalmatius, Dalmatius 
the Younger and Annibalianus. Probably this par- 
tition was on the lines marked out by Diocletian, 9 
and would not have involved such a complete sepa- 
ration of the different spheres of authority as a 
territorial distribution seems to imply. The project, 
however, was never carried out. Constantine had 
been essentially a soldier-Emperor, rejoicing in the 
good-will of the legions which he had often led to 
victory. His brothers and their sons seem never to 
have been conspicuous in military affairs. This con- 
trast, being apprehended, was probably the chief 
cause of a movement among the troops (which was 
at least not checked by the sons of Constantine) 
against the sons of Dalmatius and all the other mem- 
bers of the Imperial family except the direct 
descendants of the late Emperor. The result was 
one of those horrible occurrences that so frequently 
darken the history of Oriental dynasties : Constantius, 
who seems to have been the favourite and the most 
able son of Constantine, after celebrating his father's 
obsequies, in very magnificent style, at Constantino- 
ple, either instigated or sanctioned after the event a 
general family massacre. In this way his two 



354] His Birth and Childhood, 29 

cousins, who had received a. claim to part of the 
Imperial authority, two uncles (including Julian's 
father), and some other kinsmen (including Julian's 
eldest brother) fell victims to the rage of the sol- 
diery and to the jealousy of the eldest branch of the 
family. Julian himself only escaped in consequence 
of his extreme youth, his brother Gallus through a 
fortunate sickness which seemed likely to secure 
his removal without involving anyone in blood- 
guiltiness. According to Julian's statement, made 
long afterwards, Constantius subsequently re- 
proached himself for these murders, and regarded his 
own childlessness as a divine judgment on his crime. 
But for the time, the absence of rivals made the three 
brothers secure in their possession of authority, 
while their cousins, Gallus and Julian, having lost 
their nearest and most natural protectors, led from 
the first a precarious life, at the mercy of those who 
had deeply injured them, and against whom they 
needed to be ever on their guard. 

A new division of the Empire followed. The pre- 
cise nature of this division, the mutual relations of 
the joint rulers, and the frontier lines of their spheres 
of government are not easy to determine, though it 
is clear that the East remained under the second 
brother, Constantius, the northern and western 
regions under the eldest, Constantine, and the 
youngest, Constans. But the arrangement was 
hot lasting. Before very long, war broke out 
between Constantine and Constans. Constantine 
was entrapped into an ambush, near the city of 
Aquileia, and put to death. Constans now added 



30 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 

his brother's dominions to his own. Meantime, Con- 
stantius was sufficiently occupied in distant parts. 
We shall have occasion later on to examine the rela- 
tions between the Roman Empire and the only other 
far-reaching power of those days that had any claim 
to an inherited ancient civilisation, — the revived 
monarchy of Persia. This nation, or rather agglom- 
eration of nations, which formed the last of the great 
kingdoms of the East, is sometimes called by the 
name of the Parthian, but those who ruled over it 
claimed to be successors of Cyrus and of Darius, and 
endeavoured to attach to their rule the prestige of 
ancient glories. The dynasty of the Sassanids 
(founded 219 A.D.) had frequently come into deadly 
conflict with the Roman power, which could only 
keep the enemy at bay by means of a chain of strong 
frontier fortresses, on the Euphrates and the Tigris. 
The Sassanid king contemporary with Constantius 
and Julian was Sapor, who began to reign at his 
birth (being a posthumous child) about the year 3 10. 
Very soon after the death of Constantine, Sapor took 
advantage of the change in government to invade 
the Roman province of Mesopotamia, and to lay 
siege to Nisibis and other important towns. Con- 
stantius, however, seems to have shown some ability 
in maintaining a vigorous resistance, and some of 
the sieges, especially that of Nisibis, were raised after 
an heroic opposition to all the resources which engi- 
neering science could then command. Several battles 
were fought, in one of which (that of Singara, in 
Mesopotamia, 348) the Romans, though victori- 
ous at first, suffered a severe defeat. The general 




o i 

Q_ to 

CO < 

1—1 uj 



O UJ 

Q. <r 
< 

CO 



354] His Birth and Childhood. 3 1 

results of the campaigns of Constantius in the East 
were not very favourable to the Roman arms. 
Meantime, events had occurred in the West which 
imperatively demanded his presence, and (possibly 
after signing a truce with Sapor) he returned to 
Europe. 

These events were two insurrections, in Gaul and 
in Illyricum, and the tragic death of the Emperor 
Constans. The youngest of Constantine's sons was 
energetic in his habits of life and orderly in his 
government. The chief grievance raised against 
him was that he promoted barbarians in the army, 
to the disparagement of the old legionaries. The 
disaffected faction found a champion in a certain 
Magnentius, (who was, strange to say, himself of 
barbarian extraction), and a serious rebellion broke 
out in the Imperial Court at Augustodunum (Autun). 
Magnentius assumed the purple. Constans fled 
southwards but was captured and murdered in the 
town of Helena, at the foot of the Pyrenees. 
Meanwhile, a general of respectable reputation, 
Vetranio, raised the standard of revolt on the 
Danube, and in Rome itself young Nepotian, first 
cousin to the Emperor [see genealogical table, p. 
25] assumed the Imperial title, and maintained an 
ephemeral state by the help of a band of gladiators. 

Constantius was more successful against his rivals 
in the West than he had been against his foes in the 
East. In fact, the only insurgent who proved a 
capable or dangerous opponent was Magnentius. 
The speed with which Vetranio was induced, at a 
peaceful colloquy with the Emperor, to return with 



32 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 

all his soldiers to his former loyalty, has led some 
historians to think that in his case, at least, the 
rebellion was not seriously meant. This view seems 
to be borne out by his coinage. 10 Magnentius, how- 
ever, had strengthened himself by assuming the 
championship of various lost or distressed causes. 
He posed as representing not only the cause of 
Romans against barbarians in the army, but also 
that of Bishop Athanasius and the Nicene Creed 
against the Arians, who were generally favoured by 
Constantius. At the same time, with a curious in- 
consistency, he asserted some old claims of paganism 
against Christianity. But the forces of Constantius 
were superior, especially in cavalry. In a decisive 
battle fought at Mursa on the Drav (September, 
353) Magnentius was defeated with great loss, and 
forced to fly. Two years afterwards the remnant 
of his adherents were overpowered at Lyons, and 
he fell on his own sword. Meantime the faction 
of Nepotianus in Italy was speedily quelled. Con- 
stantius stood alone at the head of the Roman 
world. 

But though no Augustus shared his honours, 
necessity had already forced Constantius to appoint 
a subordinate with the title of Ccesar. Even the 
lordship of the world cannot confer the gift of 
ubiquity, and recent events had proved that a vigor- 
ous exercise of the sovereign power might be re- 
quired in Gaul and in Mesopotomia at the same 
time. Constantius was still childless. A tempera- 
ment naturally jealous might, one would suppose, 
have shrunk from reposing power in the hands of 



354] Career and End of His Brother Gallus. 33 

almost the last scion of a deeply injured family. On 
the other hand, a genuine repentance for the ills 
inflicted might have suggested full and loyal com- 
pensation to the surviving sufferers. But Constan- 
tius seems to have been of that uncertain tempera- 
ment which always prefers half measures. In want 
of a colleague he thought of his cousin Gallus. But 
subsequent events do not allow us to regard the 
authority with which Gallus was invested as having 
been bestowed in full and entire confidence. 

Let us now go back to inquire how Gallus and 
Julian had fared during these stormy years. Al- 
though we have information from various sources, 
including some of first-rate authority, as to the 
character of Julian's education and the places where 
it was begun and continued, it is impossible to map 
out with chronological accuracy the vicissitudes of 
his childhood and youth. It seems on the whole 
most probable that his early boyhood was passed in 
Constantinople, though it is not unlikely that he may 
have resided for a time in the city in which he after- 
wards prosecuted his studies, Nicomedia in Bithynia. 
But however this may be, the chief part in his early 
education was taken by the eunuch Mardonius, who, 
as we have seen, had been tutor to his mother. 
At the age of seven, Julian was placed under the 
care of this man, who was to act as his pcedagogue. 
This term indicates an office somewhat above that 
of an upper servant and below that of a private tutor. 
The pedagogue's duty was to escort his charges 
to school, to the games, and to the other resorts 
permitted to them, and perhaps also to see that they 



34 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. \zz\- 

prepared their lessons at home. The character of 
Mardonius is one respecting which we have difficulty 
in forming a judgment. Libanius speaks of him in 
terms of high praise ; Julian himself, on the other 
hand, has drawn a by no means pleasing picture 
of him and of his dealings with his pupil ; but as this 
picture occurs in a writing, the chief object of which 
is to satirize Julian himself and to lay the blame 
of his idiosyncrasies on his educators, it is hard to 
see how much is meant to be taken in earnest. Two 
facts, however, are quite clear : that Mardonius was 
very strict in discipline, and that he both loved 
letters himself and strove to instil, on every occa- 
sion that arose, similar tastes and feelings into the 
mind of his pupil. On the walk to the school in 
which, without any special privileges or ceremonies, 
Julian shared the tasks of the other boys, he was 
always taken along the same streets. He was told 
that it was bad manners to stare about him as he 
walked along, and he was not allowed to go to the 
theatre or the games except on rare occasions. It is 
possible that Julian's grandfather was quite willing, 
with a view to the boy's security, to agree to such a 
mode of life for him as was prescribed by the suspi- 
cious jealousy of the Emperor. On the child him- 
self the effect of so much loneliness and repression 
was to throw him upon his own resources, to stimu- 
late an almost morbid delight in nature and in stories 
of the past. The fact that his childhood was passed 
under clear skies and by sunny seas was certainly of 
importance in the formation of his mind and char- 
acter. He took an intense delight in observing the 



354] Career and End of His Brother G alius, 35 

path of the sun and in contemplating the stars at 
night. 11 Meantime his imagination was being nour- 
ished on the most wholesome food that it could 
have found in that or in any other age — the poems of 
Homer. 

Homer was the standard text-book of Greek 
education. The first subject taught to boys was 
grammar, which included a good deal that we should 
put under the head of literature. The lessons learned 
at school were enforced by Mardonius at home, 
and he used to tell the boy, if he felt his life monoto- 
nous and wished for a change of scene, to take the 
book and read about the games of the Phaeacians or 
the flowery gardens of Calypso ; he would never 
find anything more beautiful in real life. Perhaps 
we might take a hint from Mardonius, and when we 
regret our inability to discover the details of Julian's 
early life, fall back upon the book on which he was 
brought up, and endeavour to realise the impression 
made on his susceptible mind by its pictures of 
heroic life and enterprise. Julian's intimate knowl- 
edge of Homer is shown by the frequent quotations 
he makes, even when writing hastily and at a dis- 
tance from his books. This knowledge was accom- 
panied by an enthusiasm almost religious in character. 
Homer has been called the Bible of the Greeks. 
This does not of course imply that Greek moralists 
never went beyond the primitive notions of the 
Homeric age, or that'they did not freely interpret 
Homeric myths so as to adapt them to more recent 
modes of thought. Still Homer was always their 
starting-point, and their indispensable treasury of 



36 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. \zz\- 

illustrations and ideas. Dwelling comparatively near 
to the very spot where the great deeds of Greeks and 
Trojans were supposed to have been done, and 
familiar with those deeds by daily readings, Julian 
may well have seemed to himself at times to be 
living rather in the world of Agamemnon and 
Achilles than in that of Constantius and Athanasius. 
It might have been supposed that the Christian 
teachers and Christian influences by which Julian 
was surrounded would exercise some force to coun- 
teract his passionate love of epic poetry. But of 
such teaching and influence, we can find hardly any 
trace. Whether Mardonius was a pagan or a Chris- 
tian we do not know. If he was brought up in the 
family of the Anicii, and was allowed by Constantius 
to be always about his young cousin, Mardonius can 
hardly have been an active opponent of the new 
faith. Yet from what both Libanius and Julian say 
of him, we can feel sure that he was penetrated with 
the spirit of Hellenic paganism. According to Am- 
mianus, 12 Julian's education was also in part con- 
ducted by Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia and 
afterwards of Constantinople, the doughty champion 
of the Arians, and distantly related (probably through 
the Anicii) to Julian himself. Some historians have 
found in the Arian belief of those who first under- 
took to impart to Julian the elements of Christianity, 
the cause of his strong and bitter antipathy to 
the Christian religion. Some form of that religion 
which left more scope for mysticism might,they think, 
have been both attractive and satisfying to him. 
But when we come to examine the grounds of Julian's 



354] Career and End of His Brother Galhis. 3 7 

anti-Christian feeling, we shall not see much to sup- 
port this opinion. We may, however, observe that 
when party feeling runs high, the best of men are 
often apt to insist more on party principles than on 
deeper truths. Eusebius was a strong and skilful 
party leader, a faithful friend, and probably a sin- 
cerely convinced controversialist. If he did not make 
Julian a good Christian, it may be alleged in his ex- 
cuse that at the time of his death Julian was only 
ten years old. In after days Julian looked back 
upon this time as one of spiritual darkness. His 
natural impulse would doubtless have been to yield 
to the religious ideas which dominated the literature 
in which he delighted. His teachers could to some 
extent restrain such an inclination, but they could 
not or certainly did not replace it by a counter- 
enthusiasm in favour of Christianity. 

Yet these dark days were not without brighter 
moments. From Constantinople or from Nicomedia 
it would be but a short journey to the little Bithynian 
estate already mentioned, probably still in the hands 
of Julian's maternal relatives. Here he seems to 
have spent some pleasant visits. The letter in which 
he describes the place is interesting, as showing what 
we might consider a modern and refined taste for 
natural scenery, though of course in any man of the 
ancient world we must expect to find a preference 
for Nature in her tamer moods: " It is situated not 
more than twenty stadia (about two and a half miles) 
from the sea, so that no talkative merchant or quar- 
relsome sailor comes there to vex you, yet the gifts 
of Nereus are not wanting. There are fresh-caught 



38 yultan, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 

fish to be had, and from a height near the house you 
can see the Propontid Sea, the islands, and the city 
which bears the name of the great Emperor [Con- 
stantinople.] And you can look out on all this, not 
standing on slimy sea-weed, offended by the sight 
and smell of the refuse thrown out on the sandy 
beach, but will find sand and thyme and sweet-smel- 
ling meadow grass beneath your feet. It is very 
restful to recline with a book, and to refresh the eyes 
from time to time with the pleasant view of the sea 
and the ships. When quite a young boy I delighted 
in the place, with its good springs, and pleasant hath, 
orchard, and shrubbery, and after I had become a 
man, I still felt drawn to the old way of life there, 
and I often visited the place again." 

For a season, however, intercourse with school- 
fellows and relatives, and free rovings in favourite 
spots, were to be forbidden to Julian and his brother. 
Whether any fresh suspicion actuated the mind of 
Constantius we do not know, nor is the exact time 
of the change certain. But we learn from Julian's 
testimony, as well as from that of others, that he 
and Gallus were taken away from their studies and 
condemned to a lonely sojourn of six years, without 
friends, companions, or exercises suitable to their 
age or station, in the remote castle of Macellum in 
Cappadocia. Where Gallus had passed his early 
youth is not quite certain. He is said to have 
studied for a time at Ephesus, and his sojourn there 
may have coincided with Julian's schooldays in Con- 
stantinople and Nicomedia. But wherever he may 
have been sent to school, he does not seem to 



354] Career and End of His Brother G alius. 39 

have been carefully trained, and he certainly never 
acquired much intellectual culture. 

The site of Macellum has been identified as that 
of a spot at the foot of the magnificent Arghi Dagh, 
in a wild and romantic region. But romantic 
scenery had little charms even to those among the 
ancients who felt most keenly the beauty of the 
sea, the heavens, and the exuberant life of nature. 
Had it been otherwise, the absence of teachers 
and friends would still have been an occasion of 
painful longing to Julian. His only companions 
were his brother Gallus and the attendant slaves. 
The way in which he mentions Gallus shows 
that he felt for him a strong brotherly affection, but 
he was fully aware of his glaring faults of character, 
and attributed them to his bad education. It must 
be borne in mind that the slaves with whom, in the 
want of other society and of congenial pursuits, 
Gallus was compelled to associate, would probably 
be people of low character and demoralising ante- 
cedents. Between the two brothers, whose dissimi- 
larity reminded Ammianus (who knew them both) 
of Titus and Domitian, there cannot have been 
much real companionship. For himself, Julian says 
that the Gods preserved him from being corrupted 
by leading him to the study of philosophy. If, as 
seems probable, Mardonius accompanied him in his 
exile, the continuity of his studies was not entirely 
broken. Mardonius was not a mere grammarian, 
but an enthusiastic admirer of the works of Plato, 
Aristotle, and Theophrastus. Perhaps the depriva- 
tion of the best attainable teaching was not alto- 



40 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 

gether an evil for Julian at that time, if he was 
already storing his mind with the works on which 
he should afterwards hear comments, and preparing 
himself, by solitary reading and thinking, to profit 
all the more hereafter by the academic training that 
was to fall to his share. 

It seems probable that the retirement of the two 
youths at Macellum lasted till the year 350, when 
Gallus, then twenty-five years old, was summoned, 
as his brother says, from the field to the palace, to 
receive the dignity of Ccesar, and the hand of the 
Emperor's sister, Constantina, in marriage. Mean- 
time, Julian was allowed to prosecute at Nicomedia 
those academic studies which we shall consider more 
fully hereafter. 

There is no reason to suppose that Constantius in- 
tended from the first to place Gallus in such a posi- 
tion that his rude, untamable nature must needs 
bring him into difficulties and lead ultimately to his 
disastrous fall. A course of that kind would have 
been at least as dangerous to the interests of Con- 
stantius himself as to those of his cousin. Yet, if he 
had been acting with the most malicious designs, 
he could hardly have used more effectual means. 
In the first place, Constantina, was a woman of the 
kind certain to acquire a pernicious influence over 
a weak and passionate nature like that of Gallus. 
She must have been considerably older than he was, 
as she had previously been married to her cousin 
Annibalianus, who perished in the massacre of 337. 
The experiences of that time had not tended to 
sweeten her temper. According to one account, 



354] Career and End of His Brother G alius. 4 1 

she had a large share in the insurrection of Vetranio. 13 
Ammianus calls her a monster in human form, a living 
rnegcera, and the stories which that usually calm and 
impartial witness tells of her violence, cruelty, and 
avarice, go far to justify the comparison. Nor was 
Gallus much happier in the place of residence, than 
in the wife appointed to him. 

Antioc.h, the seat of his rule, was a gay, pleasure- 
loving city, where he could indulge all the worst 
proclivities of his nature, while the irascible, tu- 
multuous character of the inhabitants afforded facili- 
ties both for the perpetration and for the punishment 
of violent deeds. And even had his immediate sur- 
roundings been less unfavourable, the task entrusted 
to Gallus — the pacification and government of the 
East — was one hardly suited to an ill-trained young 
man, unused to the ways either of the camp or of 
the council-chamber. The Persians were again in- 
vading Mesopotamia. The predatory inhabitants of 
the Isaurian mountains were plundering and killing 
their neighbours. The town of Antioch itself was 
suffering from a famine, the blame of which was, 
as usual, laid by the poor to the charge of the 
wealthy. 

Gallus can hardly be said to have made a vigor- 
ous effort to resist these calamities. He did not 
take the field, though he despatched an expedition 
against the Isaurians, which seems to have had some 
success. His efforts against the famine consisted in 
an arbitrary edict to fix the price of provisions, vio- 
lent threats against all who remonstrated, and the 
sacrifice to the rage of the people of certain officials 



42 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [331- 

whom he chose to regard as responsible for the 
deficient food supplies. Meantime he amused him- 
self by holding boxing matches of the most violent 
and brutal kind, deprived the law courts of all 
respect by acquitting the guilty and condemning 
the innocent for bribes, and encouraged espionage 
of all kinds, even going about the streets incognito, 
to listen for disaffected speeches against the govern- 
ment. 

Constantius, now residing chiefly at Arelatum 
(Aries), in Gaul, was informed of the turn things 
were taking by the Praetorian Praefect Thalassius, 
who seems to have been left as a spy upon Gallus. 
Beginning as usual with tentative measures, Constan- 
tius sought a remedy by gradually diminishing the 
number of troops under Gallus's command. A little 
later, he sent a high official, Domitian, who had been 
treasurer and was now praefect, to bring about the 
Caesar's recall and retreat from Antioch. Domitian 
acted bluntly and without tact. Gallus, indignant 
at his rudeness, seized his person, and when one of 
the quaestors attempted to mediate between them, 
Gallus appealed to the soldiery, and a disgraceful 
tumult ensued, in which both Domitian and the 
quaestor lost their lives. Gallus now declared that 
a conspiracy had been set on foot against him, and 
torture was employed to make suspected persons 
reveal the names of accomplices. By such means, 
many innocent persons were arrested, and several 
were executed without any but a mock trial. 
Among these were two who had been seized in mis- 
take for others who happened to bear similar names. 



354] Career and End of His Brother Gallus. 43 

A new person now appears upon the scenes, Ursi- 
cinus, Governor of Nisibis, whom the Emperor had 
ordered to go and investigate matters on the spot. 
He was accompanied by the historian Ammianus, 
from whom we have a graphic account of all the 
transactions at Antioch. Ursicinus was shocked at 
the violence and levity with which the trials for 
treason were being conducted, and wrote to inform 
Constantius of the state of affairs. But the suspi- 
cious ear of the Emperor had been gained by the 
rivals of Ursicinus at court, and the upright soldier 
was withdrawn from Antioch, on an artificial pre- 
text, before Gallus was formally summoned thence. 
Meantime, Constantina was persuaded to leave her 
husband and pay a visit to her brother, probably in 
the hope of bringing about an understanding be- 
tween them. But before she could cross from Asia 
into Europe, she fell ill of a fever and died. Per- 
haps the only good thing to be said of her is that 
her husband acted more foolishly (though certainly 
not more wickedly) after he had lost her. He seems 
now to have entertained designs of seizing the Im- 
perial power. Nevertheless, he was persuaded by 
treacherous counsellors to leave Syria and come to 
the Emperor in Italy. He stayed in Constantinople 
on the way, behaved with foolish self-confidence, 
and held a chariot race, to the great indignation of 
Constantius. But so headstrong a man was sure to 
fall a prey to subtle courtiers covetous of his prop- 
erty rather than of his office, for Gallus, like Julian, 
had inherited considerable estates in Asia Minor. 
He proceeded on his journey, and only found that 



44 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [331- 

he had fallen into a trap when it was too late to 
retreat. When he had reached Petavio in Noricum, 
he was met by an officer who had formerly served 
under him, and who now came with a band of sol- 
diers to arrest him. He was taken to the tower of 
Pola, in Istria, the scene, many years before, of the 
murder of Constantine's eldest son, Crispus. There 
he was subjected to an enquiry as to his violations 
of justice, and laid the blame of them on his wife. 
But his cowardice could not delay his punishment, 
and he was beheaded forthwith. 

Gallus was at the time of his death twenty-nine 
years old, and had held the Caesarship for four years. 
In external appearance he was handsome, tall, with 
well-proportioned limbs, soft yellow hair, and short 
beard. His vices seem to have been rather those of 
a weak and uncontrolled than of an actively evil 
character. Unlike his brother, he never rejected 
the religion in which he had been brought up, not, 
assuredly, that his moral proclivities were more nat- 
urally Christian than Julian's, but rather because he 
was totally without those intellectual aspirations 
which made Julian a votary of Hellenism. 

It seemed desirable to narrate the history of Gal- 
lus in this place, partly because it illustrates the 
character of some of the persons and the complica- 
tions of circumstances with which Julian himself had 
to deal, and partly because the wretched career and 
sudden fall of the elder brother made a deep and 
melancholy impression on the mind of the younger, 
whom it seemed likely to involve in a common ruin. 
But the Caesarship of Gallus had not, while it lasted, 



354] Career and End of His Brother G alius. 45 

much immediate effect on Julian's life. The broth- 
ers corresponded occasionally and probably met 
once. During those four years, however, Julian was 
but little concerned with matters of court and of 
state, being absorbed in those studies which seemed 
to him of infinitely greater importance, living in an 
intellectual world which he regarded as far more 
real than any material environment. 




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Victory with wreath and palm. 



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Notes on Chapter II 47 

NOTES ON CHAPTER II. 

The best authorities for the childhood of Julian are his Letter to 
the Athenians and the funeral oration of Libanius, with which may- 
be compared Misopogon, and the Hist. Eccles. of Socrates, Bk. 
iii., c. 1. The history of Gallus is recorded at length in Bk. xiv. of 
Ammianus, who was eye-witness of some of the scenes which he 
describes, and in the concluding chapters of Zosimus, Bk. ii. Among 
modern authorities, see, besides those already mentioned, Mucke's 
Julianus. 

1 See especially Ep., 58. 

2 Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, would place his birth two 
years earlier. This would make it possible for his exile to have fol- 
lowed speedily on the general massacre of 337 (as he seems to imply 
in his Letter to the Athenians), and yet for him to have passed part 
of his school time at Constantinople, as Libanius {Epitaph :) and 
others relate. (Though Libanius says that at the time of the mas- 
sacres, Julian was only just weaned.) 

3 Fragment 5 in Hertlein. 

4 See Libanius, Epit., and Reiske's note thereon. The Anicii 
were Christians, and Count Julian is said to have changed his religion 
in order to please his nephew. I do not think this probable, as such 
change .must have occurred before Julian became Emperor. 

5 Ep., 46. Compare Fragment of Letter to a Priest, in which 
Julian mentions that he recovered his grandmother's estate after 
doing a kind turn to somebody. 

6 Ep., 13. Also one of the lately discovered letters of Julian 
published in the Maurogordateion Bibliotheke. Cf. Ammianus, 
Bk. xxiii., c. I. 

7 By Zoraras. 

8 Misopogon, 352. 

9 The dominion of Annibalianus over Pontus and the neighbouring 
countries would seem to have been more independent, as he bore the 
title and insignia of King. 

10 On the coinage of Vetranio and Magnentius, and especially on 
the adoption by Magnentius of the symbolic letters A and £1, see H. 
Schiller, /. c. iii., 3, sec. 21. 

11 See beginning of Oration in Praise of King Helios. 

12 Book xxii., c. 9. 

13 Philostorgius, iii., 22. See also Tillemont, Hist, des Empereurs^ 
Constance, Art. 18, 




Coin of Nicomedia. 
Imperial Times. 



Coin of Nicomedia. 
Imperial Times. 



Coin of Nicsea. 
A walled city. 



CHAPTER III. 

JULIAN'S ACADEMIC EDUCATION. 

350-354 

11 Ei nS vjuaS 7tETt8iH8v on tov q>iko6q)BiY hiti 6xoX.rji 
art pay juov go's idriv rjftiov ij XvdirsA.sdrepov roK drBpcortoiS, 
7]itarr}jxevoi i^artara." 

Julian, Ep. 55. 



" What do you read, my lord ? 
" Words, words, words ! " 



Hamlet, i., 2. 



HE years during which Gallus held the 
dignity of Caesar, with the months that 
immediately followed his fall, consti- 
tute a very important period in the 
life of his brother. Julian henceforth 
found himself partly, at least, liber- 
ated from the restraints under which 
he had passed the preceding six years of his life, 
and able to follow more freely his own intellect- 

48 



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350-354] Julian s Academic Education. 49 

ual bent. Not that he was even now entirely his 
own master. We hear 1 of allegations made against 
him, that he quitted Macellum for purposes of study 
in the Asiatic towns, and that he had held inter- 
course with his disloyal brother. There can be little 
doubt, however, that Constantius, whether influenced 
by friendly feeling or by self-interest, was not sorry 
to see his young cousin's eager longing after a learned 
and intellectual life. The pursuits on which his 
heart was set would be less likely than any others to 
bring him into opposition and rivalry to the ruling 
powers. There was indeed the chance that he might 
fall in with some theosophic oracle-monger, who by 
playing upon his youthful enthusiasm might instil 
into his mind the belief that he had a special voca- 
tion to constitute himself the champion of the an- 
cient gods and their votaries. The fear of such 
influences may have crossed the mind of the suspi- 
cious Emperor, but, if so, the result was to make 
him insist that Julian should openly profess adhesion 
to the Christian faith and should avoid teachers 
known to be zealous in the cause of reaction. It 
certainly did not prompt him to endeavour by en- 
ticements or threats to draw away his cousin from 
his academic studies. 

Accordingly Julian, who seems, at least before his 
rise to power and supremacy, never to have been 
deficient in worldly prudence, early perceived the 
need of caution and dissimulation, if he were not to 
be debarred from following his ruling passion. As 
Libanius says (in one of the few bright remarks that 
occasionally enliven his wearisome and bombastic 



50 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

pages), Julian reversed yEsop's fable, and became a 
lion in an ass's hide. His mental disguise was so 
successful that not only was Constantius disarmed, 
but serious doubts have been caused among eminent 
writers, down to our own days, as' to what the 
earliest religious beliefs of Julian really were, and 
whether they were changed at the time when he 
decidedly embraced Hellenism. Though the matter 
cannot be regarded as settled beyond dispute, I think 
that most students of Julian's life and works will see 
little ground for the opinion 2 . that his zeal in after 
days was that of a pervert who had once been a 
warm adherent of the opposite cause. The" state- 
ment he makes in a letter to the Alexandrians 3 that 
he " followed the way " of the Christians till he was 
twenty years old does not imply any very sincere 
adhesion to Christian beliefs and practices, nor do 
we find traces of such early attachment in any of his 
later works. He shows, it is true, considerable ac- 
quaintance with several books of the New Testa- 
ment. This lends probability to the statement, 
made by some Christian writers, that Julian at one 
time held the ecclesiastical office of Reader. He 
may also 4 have contributed, with his brother, to the 
construction of the shrine of St. Mammas in Cappa- 
docia. A silly story is told of supernatural forces 
which caused the part undertaken by Julian to crum- 
ble away and the part built by Gallus to stand 
secure, a proceeding which showed little discernment 
of character on the part of the saint, so far at least 
as Gallus is concerned. All that Julian himself tells 
us of his early habits and thoughts shows him to us 



354] Julians Academic Education. 5 1 

as a dreamy boy, devotedly fond of Greek poetry, 
and soon aspiring to the study of philosophy. His 
enthusiasm for Greek letters may naturally have de- 
veloped into a zeal for Greek religion, or rather, may 
have itself become a religion to him, without any 
critical revulsion of feeling. 

Still we have to face the knotty question, whether 
he had ever been baptised, since if it were so, it is 
the less easy to clear him in the eyes of the world 
from the opprobrious epithet that has clung to his 
name through all the ages. The statements of his 
fellow-student Gregory Nazianzen and those of Sozo- 
men and the other ecclesiastical historians cannot 
count for much where their knowledge was imper- 
fect and their hatred intense. Against their asser- 
tions, we may set the example of Constantine him- 
self and of the members of his family, especially of 
Constantius, who only received baptism when at the 
point of death. The hard penances imposed for 
sins committed after baptism had led to this habit 
of delay, which we find very prevalent, especially 
in high quarters. But on the other hand we have it 
recorded of Julian, as already stated, that he was 
admitted to the ranks of those who received com- 
mission to read the Scriptures in church to the peo- 
ple. It was not customary to bestow this office on 
those who were as yet only in the grade of catechu- 
mens, though we are told that in at least one church 5 
such cases were not unknown. Still, if Julian was 
formally admitted as a Reader, it seems probable 
that he had been baptised, even without the pressure 
of a dangerous illness ; and once at least in his 



5 2 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

childhood he must have been in peril of death. Of 
course the matter would not afterwards appear to 
him as of great moment, though the story of his 
using occult means for counteracting the efficacy of 
the baptismal water is not at all inconsistent with 
his habit of mind and character. 

The years of Julian's academic training (or, as we 
might say, of his university life) cannot be assigned 
with chronological precision to the various places at 
which we know him to have studied. He probably 
spent a considerable part of the time at Nicomedia, 
and also stayed in Constantinople. Towards the 
end of the period, he was a student at Athens, and 
he had probably made another sojourn there earlier. 
He also visited Ephesus, Pergamum, and other cities 
in Asia Minor, and it was the teaching acquired in 
these regions that seems to have influenced him the 
most profoundly. Some of the great Asiatic cities 
maintained at this time learned and eloquent men, 
who trained their youth at the public expense. Nor 
were endowments such as we know them entirely 
wanting. Marcus Aurelius had established four pro- 
fessional chairs of philosophy at Athens, to be held 
by the Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, and Epicureans 
respectively, and also chairs in politics and rhetoric. 
Athens retained her prestige for many generations, 
but the existence of the separate chairs for the four 
sects cannot be traced in the time of Julian. Mean- 
time other endowments were founded in other cities, 
and students eager to sit at the feet of a noted pro- 
fessor would migrate from city to city like the wan- 




A MUSE. 
IVORY DIPTYCH. 



354] Julian s Academic Education. 53 

dering members of the mediaeval universities, and 
many German students of our own day. 

Our want of precise chronological data as to 
Julian's early days is partially compensated by the 
abundant information we can procure as to the man- 
ner of men by whom he was taught and the kind of 
life which he and his fellow-students had to live. 
Without attempting, then, a complete narrative of 
this period of his life, we may endeavour to picture 
to ourselves some of its episodes and to judge of its 
general results. We will therefore consider here 
very briefly the nature of the academic studies of 
the time, the character of some of Julian's principal 
teachers, and the habits of his friends and fellow- 
students. 6 

The system of education in vogue during the fourth 
century was, on its intellectual side, entirely based 
on literature. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric consti- 
tuted both then and later on well into the Middle 
Ages, the basis of a liberal education. In grammar 
was included the elementary study of literature. 
Logic had already been developed into a very elab- 
orate art, with its three branches of apodeictic, bias- 
tic, and paralogistic. Rhetoric had expanded in such 
fashion as to make all other arts and sciences subsi- 
diary to herself. The physical and mathematical 
sciences were not a very important branch of ordi- 
nary education. Medicine was considered a necessary 
study for those whose health was not very robust. 
Arithmetic was in great part occupied with the mys- 
tical properties of numbers. History and politics, and 



54 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

even the lofty regions of metaphysics and theology 
were now dominated by the science and art of elo- 
quence. The charge often brought against a purely 
literary education at the present day, that it tends to 
make men overvalue the power of expression, and 
undervalue the pursuit of hidden' truths and lofty 
ideals, applies with ten-fold force to the system 
which prevailed before literary studies had been 
leavened with scientific method, while philology and 
historical criticism were yet unknown. To Greek 
school-boys it must have seemed as if the Athe- 
nians had conquered at Marathon, the properties 
of numbers had been investigated by the found- 
ers of mathematics, the immortality of the soul 
and its high destinies had been propounded by 
Plato, chiefly in order to furnish material for ele- 
gant and highly applauded themes. In the rhetori- 
cal exercises of which, we may well be thankful, not 
many have come down to our days, the youth- 
ful " heirs of all the ages," and the trainers of 
their minds eagerly sought to eulogise the great 
deeds of the past, or to show how those deeds might 
have been done better, to trace rambling analogies 
along conventional lines, and to prove the most vital. 
of truths by the weakest of logical arguments. Illus- 
trations of this perverse method of treatment are to 
be found in the works (still extant) of the Sophist 
Himerius, under whom Julian may possibly have 
studied at Athens. Among his elaborate discourses 
are some of a quasi-historical character which suffi- 
ciently display the tendency (ineradicable, perhaps, 
in the human mind) to regard all history not as a 



354] Julian s Academic Education. 55 

field for patient labour and research, but rather as a 
happy hunting ground full of moral illustrations and 
fanciful analogies. Among them are orations sup- 
posed to have been delivered respectively by Hype- 
rides for Demosthenes and by Demosthenes for 
yEschines, under circumstances that never arose nor 
were likely to arise, and one in the name of Themis- 
tocies, advising the Athenian people to reject cer- 
tain Persian propositions of peace, of a kind that 
Xerxes most assuredly never could nor would have 
offered. 

The more exact sciences suffered no less than the 
historical from the ubiquitous tyranny of rhetoric. 
Arithmetic furnished scope for fine-drawn disquisi- 
tions of fancied properties of numbers. We have an 
instance of this in a paper which appears among 
Julian's letters 8 and which may, perhaps, be a school- 
boy exercise. It was to accompany a present of a 
hundred figs, and is devoted to a eulogy of the number 
ten, and of the figs of Damascus. Even medicine 
could not entirely hold her own. Considerations of 
practical expediency induced men of delicate health 
to make themselves acquainted with the ordinary 
methods of bodily regimen, as did Basil, the future 
Bishop of Caesarea, while a student at Athens. But 
for such purposes a merely empirical knowledge suf- 
ficed, while among the masters of the art, some, at 
least, were enthralled by the all-powerful spirit of ora- 
tory. Thus we are told of a certain physician, Magnus 
of Antioch, that he excelled in rhetoric as well as in 
medicine, and rendered applicable to himself a story 
previously current concerning Pericles. As the rival 



56 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

of Pericles complained that if he had thrown the 
great orator, Pericles could persuade the people that 
he had never been carried off his feet, so Magnus 
could maintain an argument that those cured by 
other physicians than himself were still sick. 9 The 
reporter of the saying does not go on to infer that 
Magnus, by his powers of persuasion, could argue 
his patients into the belief that they had recovered. 
Still more curious and more dangerous was the 
supreme influence of rhetoric in the law-courts. Two 
anecdotes of Athenian university life in Julian's day 
illustrate this fact. There had been in Athens one 
of those not uncommon frays, of which we shall say 
more presently, between the bands of pupils attached 
to two rival professors. When the matter was 
brought before a magistrate, both professors ap- 
peared to defend their quarrelsome disciples. They 
were both armed with long speeches and with all the 
paraphernalia for creating a sensation. The pro- 
consul, however, cut short the scene by insisting that 
the student who appeared as prosecutor should speak 
for himself, and that the defence should be made by 
a student from the opposite gang. The prosecutor, 
being a youth readier with his fists than with his 
tongue, failed miserably, and so brought down jeers 
on the head of his professor, who, it was sarcastically 
said, taught the Pythagorean virtue of silence. Then 
came the turn of the defendant, Proaeresius, after- 
wards an illustrious professor in the same university. 
He rose to the occasion, implored the compassion of 
the audience, praised the glories of his master, ad- 
dressed a personal appeal to the proconsul, made a 



354] ^Julians Academic Education. 57 

telling allusion to the name of the prosecutor, (which 
happened to be Themistocles), and threw all his 
remaining energy into an eloquent peroration. This 
brought the proconsul bounding from his judgment 
seat, shaking his purple robe in wild excitement. 
Then, amid the applause of the audience and the 
happy tears of the gratified professor, the accused 
were honourably acquitted, and the accusers were 
sentenced to the lashes which, in this case, they 
probably deserved. 

In later days, this same Proaeresius, by an eloquent 
speech in honour of the Emperor, obtained the 
restoration of the tribute formerly due from certain 
islands to the city of Athens. But his oratorical 
powers were put to a severer test on another occa- 
sion. The machinations of a rival faction had caused 
him to be sent into exile. On a change of proconsuls, 
he was recalled, and the newly arrived magistrate 
bade him display his oratory in rivalry with all his 
foes. Secure in his ability to defeat them, he asked 
his enemies to choose themselves a subject for his 
discourse. When they had done so, he not only 
spoke with most entrancing eloquence both for and 
against the motion proposed, but on coming to an end, 
repeated entirely both his speeches, so that the short- 
hand reporters could not detect one verbal change. 
The result was that he received almost divine hon- 
ours, and was conducted home with military pomp. 10 

Furthermore, in the very highest regions of human 
thought, the excessive power of words was largely, 
though not universally, prevalent. A few deeper 
thinkers there were who realised that questions of 



58 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

life, morals, and religion are not to be settled by 
verbal jugglery or by pompously sounding phrases. 
But among the sophists, especially at Athens, and 
also to a great extent in Asia Minor, a discourse in 
elegant form was regarded as sufficient refutation of 
a whole reasoned system. Nothing, for example, 
can conceivably be weaker than the arguments 
directed by Himerius against the doctrines of Epi- 
curus. Into the subject of the schools of philosophy 
then prevalent we cannot now enter. We must 
return to consider it in relation to the philosophic 
views of Julian himself. Here, however, we may 
mention two prominent characteristics of fourth- 
century philosophy : its eclecticism, and its close 
connection with religious belief and occult practice. 
We look in vain for representatives of the great 
philosophic sects. Everybody seems to hold more 
or less the views of them all, except those of the 
Epicureans, who never receive fair treatment at this 
time, nor yet in some subsequent periods. The 
sinking of formerly prominent distinctions may be 
diversely explained. We may attribute it to a lofty 
cosmopolitanism which recognises the unity of truth 
under a multitude of interpretations. Or it may 
seem more probable that a cloud of words has 
enveloped and obscured distinctions that are never- 
theless radical. As to the second characteristic 
mentioned : the craving after some manifestation 
of the supernatural is everywhere apparent, and may 
be largely traced to that Oriental influence which, 
ever since the conquests of Alexander, had been 
continually streaming into western lands. 



354] Julians Academic Education. 59 

But Julian himself was, during his academic life, 
preserved by his earnestness of character from the 
worst tendencies to logomachy and sophistry preva- 
lent all around him. This is shown in a very pleas- 
ing letter subsequently addressed (probably from 
Gaul) to two former fellow-students. 11 After some 
playful expressions of envy at their delightful occu- 
pation, and regret at his own danger of falling into 
utter barbarism, he gives them some sound advice as 
to their studies : " Do not despise light literature, 
nor neglect rhetoric and poetry. But pay more 
attention to mathematics, and give all diligence to 
learning the doctrine of Plato and Aristotle. Let 
this be your main work, your edifice from founda- 
tion to roof. Additional subjects may come in by 
the way, and should be prosecuted by you with more 
diligence than others show in the pursuit of what is 
really important." 

Let us now briefly glance at the character and 
career of some of the men to whom at this time 
Julian seems to have owed most. We may thus 
perhaps grasp more vividly the characteristics w r hich 
we have noticed in the general academic teaching of 
the time, as well as the particular influences that were 
most potent in the formation of Julian's mind and 
character. We will take representatives of three 
distinct and prominent classes : Maxim us, the occult 
philosopher and pagan martyr ; Libanius, the pro- 
lific orator and renowned trainer of youth ; and 
Themistius, the sober-minded — perhaps rather cold- 
hearted — upholder of eclecticism. 

Maximus, 12 at the time when Julian first made his 



60 Julian, Philosopher and Empe r /or. [350- 

acquaintance, belonged to the band of eager pupils 
that clustered round the famous sophist ^Edesius at 
Pergamum. This city seems, from the days of the 
Attalids downwards, to have been a lively centre of 
Greek thought, art, and society, and it probably still 
contained a remnant of its once famous library. At 
this time, the tendency in Pergamene society seems 
to have been towards theosophy and occult mysti- 
cism. This disposition is especially manifest in some 
eminent ladies, a fact not surprising when we con- 
sider the liberty and consideration enjoyed by Ionian 
ladies in very early times, and also the freer life 
which Greek women generally began to enjoy under 
the successors of Alexander. The wife of Maximus 
seems to have been an ornament of this intellectual 
and spiritualist circle, but a yet more distinguished 
leader in it was a widowed lady, Sosipatra, of whose 
childhood strange tales were told. She had been 
given up, it was said, for five years to the charge of 
two ancient men who afterwards proved to be gods 
in human form. By them she was trained in the art 
of discerning things at a distance and of foretelling 
the future. Her receptions, or, as we might almost 
call them, stances, were as popular as the lectures of 
^Edesius himself, who lived on friendly terms with 
her, and educated her sons. 

It was the fame of ^Edesius that first attracted 
Julian to Pergamum, and this visit is regarded by 
some as marking the period in his life when he 
decisively made up his mind to renounce Christianity. 
It seems to coincide with the time when, as Julian 
declares, he " ceased to follow the former ways." 



354] yulians Academic Education, 61 

But if the story as told by Eunapius is in the main 
correct, Julian must have come with a clear notion 
of what he wanted, and quite emancipated from any 
shackles that his early education might have cast 
about his mind. ^Edesius was at this time well 
stricken in years, and Maximus was at Ephesus, 
which seems to have been his native place. 13 Julian 
therefore consorted chiefly with two pupils of JEde- 
sius, the genial high-flown Chrysanthius and the more 
rationalistic Eusebius. These told him tales of the 
wonderful doings of Maximus, especially how on one 
occasion he had caused a statue of Hecate to break 
into laughter, and the torches in her hands to kindle 
spontaneously. On hearing of these marvels, Julian 
cried, " He is the man for me," and started off to 
meet him. From that day to the hour when Maxi- 
mus stood by Julian's death-bed, the relation between 
them was one of close and (on Julian's side, at least) 
of respectful friendship. It was to Maximus that 
Julian showed his works when he wanted a judgment 
on their merits, just as, he said, Celtic women tested 
their new-born babes in the waters of the Rhine. 
He slept with the letters of Maximus under his 
pillow, and found time, even when very busily occu- 
pied, to write to the philosopher a full account of all 
his doings. 14 One of the first results of his inter- 
course with Maximus seems to have been a desire 
for initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries, and this 
he was able to gratify. The solemn ceremonies, the 
mystic words, meaningless enough to the outsider, 
but fraught with power to the believer, the encour- 
agement given (during this period, certainly, if not 



62 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

in the prosperous days of Greece) to the religious 
aspiration after purity and immortality, must have 
deeply impressed the mind of the young votary- 
He now felt that though he might still have to dis- 
simulate for a time, yet for him the die was cast. 

It is a curious fact that Maximus, with all his 
reverence for oracular and theurgic rites, when he 
sought responses from the Gods had no scruple in 
repeating his inquiries till the answer came in ap- 
proximately the form he desired. We may also feel 
a little startled to learn that his chief literary work 
was a commentary on Aristotle's Logic. 15 The 
sanest and the insanest philosophic methods seem to 
have been blended in the mental operations of these 
eclectics of the fourth century. Maximus was a 
man of remarkable voice and appearance, with very 
piercing eyes and (in his old age, when Eunapius 
knew him) a venerable white beard. The favours 
which Julian subsequently conferred upon him will 
be recorded in a later chapter. His end was tragic. 
He continued the practice of occult arts after they 
had been authoritatively prohibited, and thereby 
brought down on his head the wrath of the Emperor 
Valens, and prepared for himself a martyr's death. 

Libanius, the sophist of Antioch, was also a friend 
and correspondent of Julian in later days, though 
probably they did not meet often during this earlier 
period. Libanius expressly says that Julian had 
been forbidden by the Emperor to attend his lec- 
tures at Nicomedia. 16 He characteristically adds 
that Julian surreptitiously obtained copies of his 
works, and modelled his own style on them. To 



3541 yuliaris Academic Education. 63 

this statement we may demur, yet the regard in 
which Julian held the great sophist is amply attested 
by the correspondence between them and also by 
their public relations. 

The voluminous works of Libanius which 17 are 
still extant, including a minute autobiography, might 
be expected to afford us a clear view of his life 
and character, such as we cannot hope to obtain in 
the case of Maximus. 17 Unfortunately, however, 
Libanius was not distinguished, even among his con- 
temporaries, by an unbiassed pursuit of truth and 
accuracy, and the chief impression we derive from 
his works is of the profound respect he entertains for 
rhetoric or "words," and of his yet deeper respect 
for his own genius. Left fatherless in his boyhood, 
Libanius ran wild and unfettered by teachers till, in 
his fifteenth year, his master-passion took possession 
of him, and all things seemed worthless in compari- 
son with the study of eloquence, and of literature as 
an auxiliary branch of that study. To the object of 
this passion he remained faithful throughout his long 
life ; during his unhappy student days, at Athens 
(where, by force of sheer bullying, he was obliged to 
attach himself to another professor than the one he 
had come to hear) ; during the four years in which 
he held a subordinate position among the teachers 
of the Athenian University ; during a short period 
of professional life at Constantinople, five happier 
years at Nicomedia, and the forty years throughout 
which he ruled supreme, as king of eloquence, in his 
native city of Antioch. He had many difficulties to 
contend against : delicate health, the insubordination 



64 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

of pupils, the treacherous machinations of rival 
teachers, the factions of a tumultuous populace. Yet 
he weathered all storms, and maintained his reputa- 
tion and his own pleasure in it to the end of his 
prolonged career. 

In religion, Libanius was an adherent of the old 
Gods, more perhaps from taste and temperament 
than from conviction. There was no trace in him of 
fanaticism, and the letters he wrote on behalf of op- 
pressed Christians reflect great honour on his name. 
Human kindliness, and a certain degree of sound 
sense in matters where he was not personally con- 
cerned, redeem his character from the charge of 
triviality. One letter which he wrote on behalf of a 
poor man oppressed by a cruel governor is truly ad- 
mirable. We must also respect his championship of 
the bakers of Antioch during a time of famine, when 
people were about to avenge the general sufferings 
on their powerless heads. His view as to the rela- 
tive importance of religion and oratory is strangely 
shewn in a letter which he wrote to congratulate a 
friend on being made bishop, an office which afforded 
fine opportunities for applying the art of rhetoric. 
The blindness of such men as Libanius to the real 
import of the religious changes going on around 
them is curious and somewhat suggestive. 

In estimating the deserts of Libanius and his 
school, we must not overlook their services to litera- 
ture. It may be that ancient books appeared to 
them rather as a quarry furnishing raw material for 
manufacturers of discourses than as a mine contain- 
ing treasures of the highest intrinsic value. But 



354] yuliaris Academic Education. 65 

whatever their opinions and feelings might be, they 
helped to keep those treasures in existence for the 
men that were to come after them, and we are even 
now enjoying the fruits of their labours. 

Themistius, 18 a Paphlagonian by descent, who lived 
and taught in Constantinople, Nicomedia, and else- 
where, differs from Maximus in being free from 
fanaticism, and, from Libanius in having a more just 
appreciation of the subordination in which words 
should stand to thoughts. The little treatise which 
Julian addressed to him, in answer to one which he 
had sent to Julian, on the Duties of Monarchy, would 
by itself suggest that Themistius was no common- 
place man. Although in those days of oration-mak- 
ing he could hardly avoid being frequently called on 
for speeches, such as those which, revised by him, 
have come down to us, he set philosophy high above 
rhetoric. The work to which, by preference, he de- 
voted himself, was the elucidation of Aristotle, 
though he did not neglect the study of Plato. The 
appointments which he received and retained under 
a variety of emperors, orthodox, heretical, and pagan, 
might suggest that he was of the fellowship of the 
Vicar of Bray. Such a judgment, however, would 
be very unfair, since Themistius probably never pro- 
fessed a religion that he did not hold, though his 
opinions were such as to make it difficult for some of 
his contemporaries to bring them within the range of 
any party or creed. 19 While believing in the truth 
and necessity of the fundamental principles under- 
lying all religions, he held that different local and 
national rights ought to be maintained, as bearing 



66 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

witness before the multitude to deep-seated verities. 
In subsequent days, when the Emperor Valens was 
persecuting those Christians that held to the Nicene 
symbol, Themistius opposed his attempts on philo- 
sophic grounds. " The Emperor," he said, " ought 
not to be surprised at the difference of judgment on 
religious questions existing among Christians, inas- 
much as that discrepancy was trifling compared with 
the multitude of conflicting opinions among the 
heathen, which amounted to above three hundred. 
Dissension, indeed, might be an inevitable conse- 
quence of this disagreement ; but God would be the 
more glorified by the diversity of sentiment, and the 
greatness of His majesty would be the more vener- 
ated from its being thus made manifest how difficult 
it is to know Him." 20 Themistius was on friendly 
terms with Gregory Nazianzen, and seems to have 
been tolerant in deed and not only in word. 

We may thus note the fact which we shall have to 
consider more fully later on, that the relations be- 
tween the professors of the old philosophies and the 
adherents of the new religion were not always or 
necessarily hostile. One, at least, of the philoso- 
phers at Athens in Julian's time was a professed 
Christian, though apparently not very ardent for the 
faith. Gregory Nazianzen and his friend Basil were 
both fellow-students of Julian in Greece. Christian 
and Pagan teachers had at least one large field to 
cultivate in common, the art of rhetoric, which de- 
manded the labours alike of the candidate for the 
sophist's chair and of the aspirant to the bishop's 
throne. Whether the churchman desired to attain 



354] yulians Academic Education. 67 

ecclesiastical preferment, or aimed primarily at the 
salvation of souls and the edification of the faithful, 
the rhetorical training of the Athenian school was for 
him equally necessary. Whether he could, with 
whole-hearted simplicity, receive at the same time 
all the best that the ancient culture had to offer him, 
is another question, the answer to which was made 
in the days that came after. 

If we turn now from the teachers of the middle 
part of the fourth century to consider the life of the 
students, we may form a vivid picture of it, espe- 
cially of life in the University of Athens, from the 
writings of Gregory Nazianzen 21 and of Eunapius. 
The chief feature which strikes us is the extraordi- 
nary want of discipline, which is all the more re- 
markable when we see the careful regulations to 
which the Attic Ephebi were subject in earlier 
times. 22 The professors were more like condottieri 
leaders than like the ruling authorities of a consti- 
tuted educational body. Their pupils attached 
themselves to the person of their master rather 
than to the course of study he recommended, and 
were always ready to wage war on his behal-f and to 
add to his band of scholars, by fair means or by 
foul. It has been supposed that non-paying pupils 
were turned to account by the professors (who were 
not always entirely dependent on their endowments) 
by being made recruiting sergeants to bring others. 
At Athens, as in the mediaeval universities, the usual 
division was into nations, men from each particular 
province or region seeking out some eminent fellow- 
countryman under whom to study. But this rule 



68 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350- 

was not universal. We have seen that Libanius was, 
on his arrival, forced by a tumultuous band to at- 
tach himself to a master of whom he had no desire 
to learn. The experiences of a " freshman " at our 
universities are mild indeed compared with those of 
the luckless, often sea-sick youth, on his arrival at 
the goal of his innocent hopes. His first journey to 
the baths seems to have been made the occasion of 
a rude initiation, trying to nerves and temper and 
probably sometimes dangerous to the bones. Two 
men are, by different authorities, recorded as having 
been exempted from this ordeal by special request. 
Basil, whose constitution was delicate, escaped by 
the influence of his friend Gregory. Eunapius, who 
was suffering from a dangerous illness, at the time 
of his arrival, was the object of a special appeal on 
the part of the gentle Proseresius to the good feeling 
of the ringleaders among the students. 

Sometimes, as we have seen, free fights between 
bands of students furnished cases for the law-courts. 
Possibly better discipline might have been enforced 
if the professors had cared to use all their powers. 
Some, like Libanius, believed in the use of the rod. 
But such use, on the backs of young men at a dis- 
tance from any parental control, would soon have 
led to empty lecture-rooms. What should we say 
to the appeal made by Himerius to the lazy stu- 
dents who failed to return on the right day after the 
vacations ? 23 

" Presumptuous and overweening, heedless of my 
affection. Gladly would I have asked them : What 
for them is a sweeter hearing than my voice ? What 



354] Julians Academic Education. 69 

sight more cheering than my radiant aspect ? What 
tuneful birds of spring utter such sweet and pleas- 
ant strains ? What melodious, rhythmical chorus, 
tuned to the flute or pipe, can touch their hearts as 
the sound from this pulpit of mine? For indeed I 
blame those shepherds who neglect to lead their 
flocks with music and the pipe, but threaten with 
chastisement and scourging. For my own flock 
and my own nurslings — never may I see them with 
sullen brows ! — reason shall conduct them to the 
meadows and groves of the Muses. Songs are for 
them, not blows. Thus may our mutual love grow 
and flourish, and my rule be ever guided by music 
and by harmony." 

A striking instance, surely, of faith in the supreme 
power of persuasive words ! Unfortunately we see 
that in practice such power did not suffice to main- 
tain order among a community of youths brought 
together from all quarters and emancipated from 
parental control. 

Yet with all its drawbacks, university life had in 
the fourth century both the present charm and the 
germs of future profit which such a life must always 
have while youth is youth and while the roads of 
knowledge lie open. Those who had studied at 
Athens felt for their Alma Mater in their after life 
that loyal affection which we associate with the 
widely different universities of modern times. The 
excitement of a new and independent life, the first 
realisation of the glorious inheritance bequeathed 
by the past to the present age, the warm and stimu- 
lating influence of teacher on pupil, the influence 



yo yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [350-354 

yet more rousing, to body and mind alike, of con- 
genial fellow-students, the lively play of mind on 
mind in places hallowed by centuries of noble 
associations ; such was the joy of university life at 
Athens in those days as among us now. And if in 
any way Julian had reason to complain that the 
jealousy of his cousin excluded him from some 
spheres of life suitable to his rank and station, he 
might well thank the Gods that it was not in the 
forced atmosphere of a court, but in the intellectual 
freedom of great centres of culture, that he first 
learned to test and use his mental powers, and 
formed the most lasting friendships of his life. 




Bundle of Manuscripts. Rolled up. 




Coin of Constantine II. 

Plan of a camp on which stands 

the Sun-god. 



Notes on Chapter III. Ji 

NOTES ON CHAPTER III. 

! Ammianus, xv., 2. 

2 Cf. Mr. C. W. King and others. 

3 Ep. 51. 

4 According to Greg. Nazianzen, and Sozomen, v. , 2. 

5 That of Alexandria, Socrates, His. Eccles., v., 22. 

6 For much interesting information about the contemporaries and 
teachers of Julian at Athens, as well as about the whole system of 
University education at that time, I am indebted to M. Petit de 
Juleville, L' Ecole d y A thenes pendant le ^m siecle. 

7 See Greg. Naz., Oration in Praise of Basil. 

8 Ep. 24. This letter is however, regarded by Cumont as the 
work of the same author who wrote those to Jamblichus. (Sur 
V Authenticity de Quelques Lettres, etc. See infra). But in any case 
it may serve as a specimen of the models set before Julian for imita- 
tion. 

9 Eunapius, Vita Sophistarum, 180. The saying against Pericles 
is here given to Archidamus, not, as by Plutarch, to Thucydides son 
of Melesias in answer to a question of Archidamus. 

10 These stories are told by Eunapius (Vit. soph. : Julianus and 
Proceresius), and are also given in Petit de Juleville. 

11 Ep. 55- 

12 In his life by Eunapius. Cf. Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen^ 
2, 661. 

13 So says Ammianus. Eunapius does not mention his birthplace, 
but says that he was of good family. 

14 Epp. 15, 16, 37. The first two of these are disputed by Cumont. 

15 See Zeller, loc. cit. Also newly discovered series of letters by 
Julian {Mavrogordateion, etc.), No. 4. 

16 This statement might throw some doubt on the possibility of 
Julian's intercourse with Maximus. But we have already seen 
{supra, note 1), that one of his student journeys in Asia-Minor did 
bring Julian into trouble. 

17 Ed. Reiske. The autobiography is translated at the end of 
Petit de Juleville's charming essay, Sur la Vie at la Correspondance 
de Libanius. 

18 See Zeller, Phil, der Griechen, vol. iv., p. 739, and Brucker, 
Hist. Phil., ii., p. 434, et sea. 

19 Thus he has been claimed as a Christian, and confused with the 



72 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

leader of sect called Agnoeti, who professed ignorance as to whether 
Jesus Christ were or were not the Logos. The identification is 
tempting but will not stand. (See Brucker). 

20 Socrates, Hist. Eccles., English translation, iv., 32. 

21 See especially his Eulogy of Basil. Petit de Juleville is excel- 
lent here, and he is followed by Mr. W. W. Capes in his bright little 
book on University Life in Ancient Athens. 

22 See Dumont, L Ephebie Attique. 

23 Oration , xv., 1, 2. 





Coin of Magnentius. 
Reverse, Salus DD NN Ave Et Caes. The Christian Monogram, between 

A and W. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JULIAN'S ELEVATION TO THE C^ESARSHIP. 

355- 



<c e6ti 8e . . . to K8(pa\aiov, on jurfrs rov itovov (psvyaav 
firjVE T?}v r}8ovrjv Br/ps-LGDv, jutjte dupayjuodvvjji uai padraorr/i 
spoor, ror sr rrj koXiteioc 8v6x^pocir 00 (5ior dXX . . . OWE 
xaidsiav sjuavroo 6vrsi8oo$ rodavrrjr ovrs (pvdsooS vrtspoxr/r, 
nccl Ttpodsri 8e8ioo$, /ii} cpiXo6oq)iar, rji spoor ovk e^iko^v, 
eS rovi rvr drOpoortovS ovSs dXXooS EvSoxijuovdar SiafiaXXoo." 

Julian, Ep. to Themistius, 266, C. 

" The forward youth that would appear 
Must now forsake his Muses dear . . . 
'T is time to leave the books in dust, 
And oil the unused armour's rust." — A. Marvell. 

|F his first intercourse with Maximus 
and his initiation into the Eleusinian 
Mysteries marked a mental crisis in 
Julian's life, a similar crisis was 
soon to follow in his outward cir- 
cumstances. The one may be re- 
garded as preparatory to the other, 
since it is evident from Julian's writings, as well as 

73 




74 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

from the testimony of his friends, that his firm be- 
lief in his vocation to a divinely appointed task sup- 
ported him as nothing else could have done in the 
difficulties and trials that he had to undergo. 

The death of Gallus and the painful circumstances 
which attended it furnished a golden opportunity to 
the contemptible sycophants who abounded at the 
Imperial Court. Of the harassing persecutions and 
the judicial murders that disgrace this period, the 
chief responsibility must, of course, rest with the 
Emperor Constantius. Yet we should be wrong if 
we regarded Constantius as an exceptionally wicked 
man. Neither is he, in some ways, to be regarded 
as utterly weak. He had so far resisted the enervat- 
ing influences of an Oriental court as to maintain an 
unblemished reputation for chastity and temperance. 
His habitual self-control was reflected in an imper- 
turbable manner of look and behaviour which con- 
trasted with the eager restlessness of his young 
cousin. He seems to have been guided by consci- 
entious motives in the affairs of government, civil, 
military, and even ecclesiastical. But where his 
suspicions had once been aroused, he was as inac- 
cessible to the dictates of pity as he habitually was 
to the sounds and sights around him. One per- 
son, indeed, could withstand the influences of the 
courtiers, not so much, apparently, by appealing to 
his better feelings as by cleverly flattering his self- 
interest. This was the brilliant and beautiful Em- 
press Eusebia, Julian's good genius at the Court. 
Constantius having lost his first wife, Galla, had 
married Eusebia probably not long after the defeat 




AN EMPRESS (PLACIDIA?) AND HER SON. 
IVORY DIPTYCH. 



355] Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 75 

of Magnentius. 1 She was a Macedonian by birth, of 
a consular family, had been educated in Greek litera- 
ture, and was singularly discreet in her behaviour. 
She used her influence over her husband, an in- 
fluence which she probably owed more to her men- 
tal than to her physical attractions, in favour of her 
family, several members of which received promo- 
tion. This seems to have moved no great animad- 
version against her, probably because in other ways 
she advocated moderate courses, and was always in 
favour of clemency and opposed to the corrupt in- 
fluences of the eunuchs. If serious charges have 
been brought against her by some historians, they 
may be shown to rest on no very solid ground. 2 
Her habitual attitude in Court factions, as well as 
her natural sympathy with a young Greek scholar, 
constituted her the champion of Julian at Court, 
and to her he owed his escape from peril, and his 
rise to a position of power and importance. 

Meantime, many suspected persons fell victims 
to the vengeance which overtook the partisans of 
Gallus. Ursicinus, the honourable soldier whose 
mission in Syria has been already mentioned, and to 
whose person the historian Ammianus was specially 
attached, had a narrow escape from execution on a 
charge which amounted to little more than a recog- 
nition of his capacity and popularity. The most 
dangerous foe to all men of standing and ability was 
Arbetio, consul in the year 355, whose serpent-like 
wiles devised against his rivals were too often suc- 
cessful. Among the lesser functionaries who de- 
voted themselves to the congenial task of tracking 



76 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

out real or imaginary conspiracies, the most noto- 
rious were a Persian of the name of Paul and a 
Dacian called Mercurius. The former acquired the 
nickname of "The Chain," because of his skill in 
linking together every circumstance that could tell 
against his victims. The latter was known as the 
" Count of Dreams," owing to his habit of extract- 
ing treasonable intentions from reports of nightly 
fancies. At the same time Rufinus, who held the 
office of Chief Apparitor of the Praetorian Prefec- 
ture, 3 was eager to welcome any secret or treach- 
erous information. One catastrophe caused by these 
sycophants seemed likely to implicate Julian in its 
issue. A dinner had been given at Sirmium, on the 
Save, by the governor of one of the districts of 
Pannonia. Talking freely over their wine, some of 
the guests complained of the violent measures of 
the Government, others spoke of a coming revolu- 
tion, other lighter heads told stories of family fore- 
casts which seemed applicable. But a Government 
official was sitting among them. The hasty words 
were speedily reported to Rufinus. The spy was 
rewarded, the indiscreet talkers seized and brought 
in chains to Milan, with the exception of one, who 
contrived to commit suicide on the way. On this 
occasion, however, they were so fortunate as to suf- 
fer only imprisonment and threats. 4 

Julian had meantime been summoned to Milan. 
The weapons that his enemies sought to turn against 
him were his alleged intercourse with his brother and 
his journey in Asia of which we have already spoken. 



355] Julian s Elevation to the Ccesarship. 77 

Julian said afterwards that he had not seen Gallus at 
all during the time in question, though he had occa- 
sionally corresponded with him. Ammianus says 
that he was in Constantinople when Gallus passed 
through the city. The statements are not contra- 
dictory, and in any case Julian seems to have been 
successful in clearing himself when he had an oppor- 
tunity of so doing. But it was long before such an 
opportunity was granted. For seven months he felt 
himself a prisoner. Six months he spent in Milan, 
without being once admitted to an interview with 
his cousin, whom he had only once seen before, 
namely, during his stay in Cappadocia. The Sirmium 
troubles prolonged, most probably, his time of 
duress. Libanius says that he behaved with much 
discretion, not demeaning himself by denouncing 
his dead brother, yet not bidding defiance to the 
powerful Emperor. At length he was sent for a 
time to Como, but he did not remain there long. 
He soon found an opportunity of requesting the 
Empress to use her influence so that he might be 
permitted to return to his maternal estate in Asia 
Minor, which he seems to have regarded as his home. 
The permission was almost granted when events 
occurred which made the Emperor anxious to loosen 
the ties which bound his cousin to Asia Minor, and 
perhaps also to keep him nearer to himself. Conse- 
quently, Julian was sent to study in Athens. The 
months of seclusion and anxiety had occupied the 
autumn and winter of 354 and the spring of 355. 
They were probably of service to him in the oppor- 



j& Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

tunities they afforded of acquiring practical acquaint- 
ance with the Latin language, such as Libanius tells 
us he afterwards possessed. 

If in after days 5 Julian declared that he desired 
nothing more than to live and die in the glorious 
city of Pallas Athene, he need not be suspected of 
affectation. Apart from the pleasantness of univer- 
sity life in the great centre of Hellenism to a young 
man of studious habits, genial temperament, and 
almost morbid sensitiveness to historical associa- 
tions, the glimpses Julian had had of court life had 
not been such as to make the other seem less desira- 
ble in comparison. 

Constantius was the one successful man of his 
family, yet his lot cannot have seemed a particularly 
happy one, while he lived surrounded by rapacious 
courtiers and hampered by perpetual cares. Of the 
numerous male posterity of Constantius Chlorus, he 
and Julian alone survived, the others having perished 
by violent deaths. Meanwhile, sophists like Proae- 
resius and Himerius lived to a green old age, and 
the troubles which factious jealousy might arouse 
against them were easily quelled. There was an 
atmosphere of freedom in action and speculation 
among the student bands of various nations and 
creeds, which must have been most welcome to 
Julian after his forced dissimulation and caution. 
Nor were the leadings of ambition altogether in 
favour of a more active life. We have seen the 
extraordinarily high esteem in which the leading 
sophists of the age were held, and Julian, himself, in 
spite of his youth, was beginning to enjoy a high 



355] ^Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 79 

degree of consideration and popularity among the 
students. Even if we discount the extravagant 
remarks of Libanius on the great sensation which 
his brilliant abilities and wide range of knowledge 
caused among his peers, we can easily believe that 
he had soon gathered around him a devoted circle 
of friends and admirers. 

We cannot with certainty date any of Julian's 
writings as belonging to this period of his life, yet it 
was undoubtedly for him a time of great mental 
activity. The malicious pen of Gregory Nazianzen 
has drawn a portrait of Julian as he appeared at this 
time. It is a coarse caricature, yet if we compare it 
with the description given by Ammianus Marcellinus, 
and with what we might otherwise suppose, we may 
discern in it some foundation of fact. It was the 
eager, nervous restlessness of his gait, his unme- 
thodical outpourings of excited speech, his sudden 
bursts of laughter, that seemed to the future bishop 
unworthy of a sober and dignified person. Ammi- 
anus, 6 who must have been very familiar with his 
appearance, describes it thus : " He was of middle 
height, with soft, fine hair, a bushy, pointed beard, 
beautifully bright and flashing eyes which bespoke 
the subtlety 7 of his mind ; fine eyebrows, a very 
straight nose, a rather large mouth with full lower 
lip, a thick arched neck, large broad shoulders, a 
frame compact from head to finger tips, whence his 
great physical strength and agility." To his physical 
culture, however, he would probably not have devoted 
much attention but for the sudden change in his pros- 
pects, the causes of which we have now to trace. 



So Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

We have already seen that the eastern provinces 
of the Empire were by no means pacified, nor a 
permanent barrier set up against Persian encroach- 
ments at the time when Constantius had to turn and 
face his foes in the West. Musonianus, an Antio- 
chene of eloquence and culture, had been appointed 
Praefect of the East. He had secured the favour of 
Constantius by the clearness with which he had ex- 
plained to him the distinctive dogmas of the Mani- 
chees and of other sects. 8 In some respects he was 
worthy of his high post, but his besetting sin of 
avarice led him into courses detrimental to the 
eastern provinces and to the whole Empire. Mean- 
time though the Persian king was, happily for the 
Romans, occupied in the far East, his lieutenants 
were making incursions into Armenia and Mes- 
opotamia. It seemed probable that before long the 
presence of the Emperor would be required at the 
head of an army in Asia. Meantime, yet more 
pressing dangers threatened from the West. 

The troubles from the German nations where per- 
haps in part an after-wave of the rebellion of 
Magnentius. Constantius has been accused 9 of 
cowardice and treachery in trying to stir up some 
barbarian tribes to invade the provinces at the crisis. 
If he did so, the act was not alien to Roman policy 
in dealing with barbarians and insurgents, and he 
did his best to repair the folly of it by taking the 
field in the spring of the year 354. The object of 
his attack was the tribe, or congeries of tribes, called 
the Allemanni, from whose ravages the Empire had 
suffered on many occasions since the reign of Cara- 



355] ^Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 8 1 

calla, or possibly from an earlier period. The Em- 
peror Aurelian, and in more recent times Constantius 
Chlorus, had dealt them severe blows, and they had 
been more or less held in check by the lines of for- 
tresses along the Rhine frontier which had been 
raised and maintained by Diocletian and his col- 
leagues. Now, however, they had broken through 
the barrier, and established themselves in the regions 
known in modern times as Alsace and Lorraine. 

Constantius set out from Arelate (Aries) near the 
mouth of the Rhone, and marched north to Val- 
entia at the junction of the Rhone and the Isere, 
expecting reinforcements from Aquitaine, the arri- 
val of which was delayed by excessive rains. The 
troops which had been mustered about Cabillona 
(Chalons-sur-Saone) became impatient and even mu- 
tinous. The arrival at last of money and pro- 
visions was more effectual than the persuasions of 
the Praetorian Prefect, Rufinus, in inducing them to 
continue the march, and after many difficulties, ow- 
ing to the early time of the year, they reached the 
Rhine not far from the site of Basel. An attempt 
to make a bridge of boats was frustrated by the 
enemy, who had been warned by some fellow-tribes- 
men holding office in the Imperial army. Owing 
however to reasons which cannot be with certainty 
assigned, the Allemanni were not eager to avail 
themselves of their own advantageous position or 
of the distance of the Romans, and envoys arrived 
in the Imperial camp from the brother-kings Gundo- 
badus and Vadomarius desiring conditions of peace. 
Constantius set forth, in an address to the army, the 



82 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

grounds for deciding to accede to this request. A 
treaty was concluded with solemn rites, and Con- 
stantius returned to Milan, where, as we have seen, 
Julian also spent the following winter. 

Next year, another tribe of the nation of the 
Allemanni made an incursion into Roman territory 
in the neighbourhood of Lake Constance (then called 
Brigantia), and Constantius again took the field. He 
did not, however, advance in person against the foe, 
but stayed in Raetia, while Arbetio, holding the title 
of Magister Equitum, penetrated with a large force 
into the mountain home of the barbarians. Here, in 
ignorance of the difficulties of the country, he was 
taken at unawares, and suffered a severe defeat. 
The credit, however, of the army was retrieved and 
the safety of the remnant secured by the gallant en- 
deavours of three tribunes on the Roman side, who 
turned the fortune of the campaign. The uncouth 
barbaric names of these rescuers of Roman honour 
remind us how, for better or for worse, the mistress 
of the world had come to depend upon those she 
might affect to despise but could not afford to ignore. 
Such as this victory was, Constantius regarded it as 
entitling him to the honour of a triumph. 

Arbetio seems thus to have been no general him- 
self, and he pursued with revengeful envy those 
whose talents were conspicuous above his own. His 
machinations against the Frankish general Silvanus 
brought the western provinces into serious peril. 
This brave soldier, whose desertion of Magnentius 
at a critical moment had helped to secure the victory 
of Constantius at Mursa, had been sent in the capa- 



355] Juliaris Elevation to the Cczsarship. 83 

city of Magister Peditum 10 to make head against the 
invaders. An underling of his named Dynamius 
entered into a conspiracy with Arbetio to compass 
his destruction. Letters of recommendation were 
obtained from him on plausible pretexts. The con- 
tents of them were then erased and treasonable 
matter substituted, and the transmuted epistles with 
the signature of Silvanus, were brought before the 
Emperor as evidence of his guilt. He was, however, 
not without friends at Court, and it was decided to 
send a commissioner who should induce him to return 
to Milan, that he might, if possible, clear himself. 
Unfortunately the mission was entrusted to a courtier 
of the lowest type, who assumed the guilt of Silvanus 
as certain, and made matters in Gaul much worse. 
Silvanus regarded himself as a lost man. He would 
have fled to his own people, the Franks, but feared 
lest their desire to stand well with the Emperor 
might lead to his betrayal. In desperation he threw 
himself on the personal loyalty of his soldiers, and 
in the city of Agrippina (Cologne), he assumed the 
Imperial purple. 

Meantime the astonishing trickery that had been 
practised against him was brought to light. It is a 
curious instance of the manner in which such affairs 
were regarded at the court of Constantius, that one 
of the prime intriguers shortly afterwards received 
promotion. The practical problem now was to 
secure the person of Silvanus. The mission was 
entrusted to Ursicinus, whose ability and fidelity 
made him so necessary at such a crisis as to silence 
the tongues of the envious. With him were asso- 



84 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

dated ten tribunes, one of whom was the historian 
Ammianus. They were to assure Silvanus as to the 
security of his person and the continuance of his 
dignities, provided that he returned to Court at once, 
leaving Ursicinus to carry on his duties in Gaul. It 
is with regret that we see honourable men like 
Ursicinus and Ammianus condescending to the mean 
deception of a culprit whom they regarded with pity 
rather than with aversion. They were hospitably 
received by the usurper, whose authority they judged 
it prudent to acknowledge. Silvanus, with the levity 
of a barbarian soldier, vented, in conversation with 
Ursicinus, his indignation against the manner in 
which both he and his principal guest had been 
habitually treated by the Court. Ursicinus now felt 
justified in meeting treachery with treachery. Some 
of the soldiers of Silvanus were bribed to turn against 
him. A tumult ensued, the usurper's guards were 
put to the sword, and he was himself slain after he 
had been dragged from a church into which he now 
fled for refuge. 

Proceedings such as these, though they might 
temporarily avert an impending danger, did not tend 
permanently to check the inroads of the Germans or 
to encourage any generals who might be sent against 
them. And while the horizon to East and West 
was heavy with clouds, the sky was by no means 
clear in the immediate neighbourhood of the Imperial 
presence. In Rome, the Praefect Leontius, a man of 
stern character, had with difficulty quelled a popular 
commotion due to scarcity of wine. At the same 
time, the Bishop Liberius had fallen into disgrace 



355] Julians Elevation to the Ccesarship. 85 

through his championship of the Nicene party. 
Hampered by difficulties on all sides, Constantius, 
still childless, saw the need of taking a step that 
might secure the dynasty, and render the Imperial 
house more popular with the army and with the 
people. 

This step was the elevation of Julian to a position 
similar in honour and title to that formerly held by 
Gallus, in order that his military abilities might be 
tested, and if found considerable, might be turned 
to the use of the Empire in its time of need. Darker 
motives have been attributed to Constantius in this 
course of action. He may have reflected that if 
Julian were not successful, many opportunities would 
arise for his convenient removal from the scenes. 
The conduct of Constantius on other occasions does 
not militate against such suspicions, and it must 
have seemed a most unlikely chance that a youth 
bred without any military training or acquaintance 
with the ways of the world, should prove capable of 
holding his own in a position which required a rare 
combination of practical talents. It is quite possible, 
however, to give Constantius the benefit of the doubt, 
especially since the course was urged by Julian's 
steady friend, Eusebia, and since the promotion was 
not intended in the first instance to carry with it 
very grave responsibilities. 

When Julian was summoned from Greece to Milan 
he obeyed with great reluctance and gloomy fore- 
bodings. Not only was he obliged to leave, perhaps 
for ever, his favourite pursuits, his most esteemed 
friends, and all but a traveller's quantum of books; 



86 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [355 

the future was as dark to him as the immediate past 
had been bright. He felt, he afterwards said, 11 as 
if he were called to drive four spirited horses with- 
out having learned the art of the charioteer. He 
held up his hands towards the Acropolis, and be- 
sought Athena not to desert her votary. Then he 
travelled to Milan, and took up his abode in one of 
the suburbs. Julian afterwards described, with some 
humour, the process which he had to undergo in the 
transmutation from student to soldier and prince. 
Not only must his beard be shorn 12 and his sophist's 
gown exchanged for a soldier's cloak ; he must also 
unlearn his student's irregular gait and affect the 
strut of the courtiers around him, on whom, all the 
while, he looked as the executioners of his family 
and as his own personal foes. The practice of mili- 
tary exercises, however necessary, was at first very 
irksome to him, and he was heard to mutter, " O 
Plato ! " as he tried to catch the step of an elaborate 
military movement. Perseverance, however, made 
up for long neglect. A characteristic story was told 
of him afterwards, how, when he was engaged in a 
military exercise, his shield broke away in his hand. 
Without being disconcerted, he held up the handle 
before the by-standers, exclaiming: " I keep what I 
had hold of." 

Meanwhile Eusebia reassured him both by mes- 
sages and by kindly words spoken in a personal 
interview : " You have received somewhat from us 
already," she said, "you shall have more by-and-bye, 
with God's help, if only you are loyal and fair in your 
dealings with us." Her good-will was shown yet 



355] Julian's Elevation to the Ccesarship. 87 

further in the highly-appreciated gift of a good 
library, to supplement the meagre stock of books 
that he had brought from Athens. 

It was naturally to Eusebia that Julian felt dis- 
posed to apply in seeking some way of escape from 
the responsibilities and perils that awaited him in his 
new career. His actions, as well as the workings of his 
mind at this crisis, were afterwards described by him 
in his Letter to the Athenians. The passage may be 
quoted at length, as illustrating alike the painfulness 
of his position at the time, the means to which he 
commonly resorted in search of supernatural direc- 
tion, and the Stoic sense of duty imbibed from the 
teachings of Socrates and of Julian's hero-model — 
Marcus Aurelius. 

" Eusebia sent me friendly messages on several oc- 
casions and bade me write freely to her concerning 
my desires. Accordingly I wrote her a letter, or 
rather a petition, containing such vows as these ; 
' May you have children to succeed you, may you 
receive all good gifts from God, if only you will send 
me to my home as quickly as possible.' But I 
doubted whether it were safe to send to the palace 
a letter addressed to the Emperor's wife. I prayed, 
therefore, that the Gods would declare to me at 
night whether or no I should send my letter to the 
Empress. But they warned me that if I should send 
it, the most disgraceful of all deaths awaited me. I 
write the truth, and call the Gods to witness. Ac- 
cordingly I refrained from sending the letter. And 
from that night a thought possessed me which is 
worth imparting to you. ' I have in my mind ven- 



88 Julian> Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

tured/ I said to myself, ' to resist the Gods, and have 
thought to devise better schemes for my welfare than 
those of the All-Knowing Powers. Yet human 
reason, its eyes fixed on the immediate present, can 
but attain passable fortune and avoid errors for a 
short space. Wherefore no man takes thought for 
the things which are to come thirty years hence, nor 
yet for those which are already past. As to the fu- 
ture, deliberation is superfluous, for the past it is un- 
availing. Man can only take counsel for what lies 
near at hand, or on that which he can already see in 
potentiality and in germ. But the Divine Reason 
stretches far, nay, it comprehends all things, so as to 
indicate rightly, and to accomplish what tendstogood. 
For the Gods, as they are the cause of all that is, are 
likewise the origin of all that shall be. Thus must 
they needs have understanding as to the things of the 
present.' And as I thought thus, it seemed to me that 
my second determination was better than my first. 
And considering the justice of the matter, I reflected : 
1 Would you not be angry if one of your beasts were 
to deprive you of its services, say a horse or a sheep or 
a calf, and were to run away when you called it ? And 
seeing that you wish to think yourself no beast but 
a man, and not even a man of the common herd, but 
one belonging to a superior and reasonable class, 
would you deprive the Gods of their use of you, and 
not be ready to accomplish whatever their will might 
demand of you ? Beware lest you not only fall into 
this great folly, but also neglect your rightful duties 
towards the Gods. Where is your courage? A 
sorry thing it seems to be ; you are ready to cringe 



355] yulians Elevation to the Ccesarship. 89 

and flatter from fear of death, when it is possible for 
you to cast all anxiety aside, and to leave the Gods 
to work their will, dividing with them the care of 
yourself, as Socrates did ; thus in all things concern- 
ing yourself doing what you find possible ; leaving 
the whole in their hands ; seeking not your own gain ; 
seizing nothing for your own use, you might receive 
in all security the gifts they bestow upon you. 
This course seemed to me not only safe, but suitable, 
to a man of reasonable mind, especially as it had 
been pointed out by the Gods. For to rush head- 
long into an unseemly course of present peril in 
order to escape from dangers in the future seemed 
to me unwise in the extreme. I yielded and obeyed. 
Soon after, the title and the garb of Ccesar were 
conferred upon me." 

The ceremony of investing the new Caesar with 
the purple robe was performed in a great military 
assembly at Milan, on the 6th of November, 355. 
The soldiers applauded the Emperor's speech, and 
were pleased at the modest bearing and animated 
countenance of the young Caesar. But while they 
clashed their shields against their knees, he thought 
less hopefully of the issue of the proceedings, and 
repeated to himself a line of Homer : 

" Him purple death obtained, remorseless fate." 14 

A few days afterwards, Julian married Helen, the 
sister of Constantius. Of this lady we know almost 
nothing, either for good or for evil. She was prob- 
ably no longer very young, but if she was the child 
of her father's old age, she may have been no older 



90 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [355 

than Julian himself, who is said to have attained his 
twenty-fifth year on the day of his elevation to the 
Csesarship. 15 We have occasional mention of her in 
some of Julian's letters, but not any that can enable 
us to judge whether or no the marriage was a happy 
one. Her influence over him was probably nil. In 
any case, her death at the most critical period of his 
life prevented her from acting much on his conduct, 
either as a stimulus or as a restraint. They had one 
child, who died at birth. 16 

On the 1st of December, Julian left Milan for 
Gaul. The Emperor accompanied him as far as 
Pavia, whence Julian struck west for Turin. He 
had been obliged to remodel his household, and 
only retained four of his former personal attendants, 
of whom two were mere boys. Of the other two, 
one, the only member of the party who shared 
Julian's feelings as to religion, had charge of his 
books. The other was the physician Oribazius, 17 a 
pupil of the rhetorician-doctor Magnus, whom we 
have already mentioned. How far the changes were 
necessary, it is not easy for us to judge. The other 
grievances which Julian felt, the restrictions placed 
upon his own authority, are fully justified by the 
total inexperience and the untried ability of the new 
Caesar. 

At Turin bad news awaited the party. The great 
colony of Agrippina (Cologne), in which Silvanus 
had previously assumed the purple, had fallen into 
the hands of the barbarians. No decisive action 
could be taken before the beginning of spring, and 
meantime Julian went into winter quarters at 



355] Julians Elevation to the Cczsarship. 91 

Vienne. He received a warm welcome from the in- 
habitants of that city, and one blind old woman 
declared that he was destined to restore the temples 
of the Gods. It is not impossible that in some 
minds the late misfortunes were associated with the 
non-observance of the national cults. 

Ammianus, in sketching the character of Julian 
at this time, compares him to the Emperor Marcus, 
whom he followed in his whole-hearted devotion to 
the cause of duty and of right reason. Julian, 
eagerly continuing his studies while preparing to 
attack the Franks and Allemanni, may remind us 
of his philosophic predecessor, noting down, in his 
camp among the Quadi, his reflections on the gov- 
ernment of the universe and on the laws of moral 
life. If in some respects Julian may fall short of his 
ideal, he was probably more successful than was 
Marcus in arousing his energies from a life of con- 
templation to one of action. As a philosophic 
idealist who was also a great military leader, there is 
hardly a name, except perhaps that of Epaminondas, 
that we can place beside his. His military achieve- 
ments will occupy us in the following chapter. 





Coin of Constantius II. 



Obverse, Gaudium Romanorum. 
a crown from heaven. 



Constantine receiving 



92 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

NOTES ON CHAPTER IV. 

1 For the probable date of the marriage of Constantius and Eusebia, 
see Tillemont, note xxi., on Constantius. Cf. also Art. xxvi. See 
Zosimus, bk. iii., ch. i., Julian's Oration in Honour of Eusebia, 
his references to her in his Letter to the Athenians, and several 
passages in Ammianus. 

2 See infra, note 16. 

3 Adparitionis prafecturce pr<ztorian<z principem, Am.,xv., 3. He 
is elsewhere called Praetorian Prsefect (or is it a different person ?). 

4 Am. Marc, loc cit., cf Julian's Letter to the Athenians 273, 
CD. I cannot see that Miicke Cjuliari 's Leben und Schriften p. 
29) is to be followed when he infers that Julian was himself present 
at the Sirmium dinner. 

5 Libanius, Epitaph. Cf. Letter to the Athenians. 

6 Am. Marc, xxv., 4. 

7 (Or a look of perpetual inquiry.) Venustate oculorum micantium 
flagrans, qui mentis ejus argutias indicabant (some MSS., angustias). 

8 Am. Marc, xv., 13. He was also called Strategius. 

9 By Libanius and Zosimus. 

10 Or, perhaps, Magisier equitum et peditum, Schiller, iii., 3, sec. 
25. For the rebellion of Silvanus, see chiefly Am., xv., 5. Cf. 
Julian, Or. ii. 

11 Or. iii., 122. 

12 It must have grown again pretty rapidly, as it appears on his 
coins and medals. 

13 Letter to the Athenians. This would seem to show that 
Julian regarded the massacre of his relations as originating in the 
Court rather than in the Army. Letter to the Athenians, 275-7. 

14 ' EXXafjE rtopcpvpsoS Qocvaroi xal fiolpa Kparai?]. See ac- 
count of the proceedings in Am., xv. , 8. 

15 This has been conjectured, perhaps on insufficient grounds ; see 
Tillemont, note i. 

16 We may here dispose of the unpleasant story, related by Ammi- 
anus, that Eusebia, by the use of pernicious drugs, caused the un- 
timely death of Helen's children, and afterwards of Helen herself. 
The statement is entirely at variance with what we know, not only of 
the character, but of the lines of policy attributed to Eusebia. Of 
course, jealousy may incite to dark deeds women who are otherwise 
estimable. Yet in this case, we may be permitted to doubt the state- 



Notes on Chapter IV. 93 

ment of Ammianus. It is quite impossible that Julian should have 
written as he did concerning Eusebia, after both she and Helen were 
beyond reach of flattery or of vituperation, had he known of any such 
hateful machinations on her part. Nor could her practices have re- 
mained permanently unknown to him. At the same time, we are 
told that Eusebia suffered greatly, and shortened her own life, 
through the use of drugs taken to produce fecundity, a gift, as Chrys- 
ostom says, which she should have expected only from Heaven. 
What more probable than that being in the habit of using quack 
medicines herself, she should have recommended them to her sister- 
in-law, and that malicious tongues should have twisted an act of 
kindly-meant imprudence so as to give it a terribly criminal character ? 
17 Cf. with Letter to the Athenians, Eunap., Oribazius. 




A Four-horse Chariot. 



CHAPTER V. 

JULIAN'S OESARSHIP IN GAUL. 1 

356-359- 

'AjiKporepor, fiadiA.sv$ r dyaQoS nparEpoi r atxwrrjS. 
(II., III. , 179. Chosen for inscription on Julian s Tomb. Zosimus, 

»i.> 34-) 

" Thine, Roman, is the pilum ; 
Roman, the sword is thine, 
The even trench, the bristling mound, 

The legion's ordered line ; 
And thine the wheels of triumph, 
Which with their laurelled train 
Move slowly up the shouting streets, 
To Jove's eternal fane." 

Lays of Ancient Rome. 



Of 



HE new and arduous duties which be- 
gan for Julian in the early months of 
356 were not facilitated by any very 
clear and intelligible arrangements de- 
fining the character and extent of his 
authority. The system by which 
Diocletian had marked out the sphere 
activity belonging to the Augusti, the Caesars, 

94 




356-59] Julians Ccesarship in Gaul. 95 

and the civil and military authorities that acted 
under them, had, as we have already seen, scarcely 
survived his abdication. The partial division of Im- 
perial authority among the sons of Constantine, and 
the delegation made in the more recent and equally 
unlucky case of Constantius and Gallus, can hardly 
have been looked on as furnishing convenient or 
safe precedents. The authority of the Caesar was 
not regarded as entirely superseding either the civil 
powers of the Praetorian Praefect, or the military 
command of the Magister Equitum et Peditum. The 
Praetorian Praefect of the Gauls was the same Rufinus 
who has been already mentioned. 2 He was brother 
to the first wife of Julian's father, and therefore 
uncle to his brother Gallus, and probably well in- 
clined to the new-made Caesar. But we shall see that 
Julian had serious difficulties to encounter from the 
Praefect appointed in 357. In military matters he 
was supposed to act conjointly with the Magister 
Equitum Marcellus, and with Sallust, the holder of 
some military office which is not specified. 3 Of these 
Sallust was an able and loyal man, Marcellus was 
either incapable or perfidious — probably both. No 
reasonable person can blame Constantius for not at 
once entrusting full powers to an entirely untrained 
and untested man. But he seems, in accordance 
with his character, to have subjected Julian to a 
system of espionage irksome to his feelings and 
detrimental to his efficiency. As Julian afterwards 
said, Constantius sent him not to rule, but to bear 
about the image of the Imperial ruler — to represent, 
we may say, in his person the majesty of the Em- 



g6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

pire. Yet, if the speech before the soldiers, which 
Ammianus, in Thucydidean fashion, puts into the 
mouth of Constantius, may be taken as indicating 
the nature of the charge given, Julian was not to 
serve as a mere figure-head : " Come and share my 
labours and my perils, and take upon yourself the 
care of the Gauls, that you may by beneficent action 
alleviate the pains with which they are stricken. If 
you are called to go against the enemy, your place 
is close to the standard-bearers. Be wise in inciting 
to opportune action, lead with caution while you 
arouse the courage of the soldiers, be at hand to sup- 
port the wavering, moderate in reprimand, a faithful 
witness alike of good deeds and of short-comings." 
" The Gauls," of which the charge was thus en- 
trusted to Julian, did not constitute one very definite 
territorial area. The Praefecture of the Gauls, which 
coincided almost, if not entirely, with the regions 
over which Constantius Chlorus, Julian's grand- 
father, had ruled as Caesar, comprised not only 
modern France and Belgium, but the British Isles, 
Spain, 4 and parts of Germany and Holland. On the 
other hand, the Diocese of the Gauls did not include 
Aquitaine nor yet the old province of Narbonne. 
Julian's power was certainly exercised in these latter 
parts, but he seems to have had no concern with 
Spain, nor yet with Britain, except in so far as 
Britain constituted the granary of Gaul in the nar- 
rower sense. The Gauls, in ordinary speech, com- 
prised all the country between the Pyrenees, the 
Alps, the Rhine, and the Ocean, and included many 
provinces in very various stages of civilisation. 



359] Julian's Ccesarship in Gaul. 97 

In the south-east was the earliest Roman province 
in Gaul — Gallia Narbonensis, sometimes called 
Viennensis. These regions were as thoroughly 
Romanised as was any part of Italy, and contained 
the flourishing cities of Arelate (Aries), Valentia 
(Valence), and Vienna (Vienne). Aquitania was, 
roughly speaking, in the form of a square, of which 
the sides were respectively formed by the Pyrenees, 
the Ocean, the Loire, and the Rhone. To the north 
was Lugdunensis, an irregular triangle, having its 
apex near the great city of Lugdunum (Lyons), and 
its base in a line running from the mouth of the 
Seine to that of the Loire. Further north was Bel- 
gica, and still further north the two Germanise, the 
home of independent warriors who still, especially in 
the further parts, disdained any kind of subjection to 
Rome, though they often served for Roman gold in 
the Imperial armies, and held lands on the border 
on condition of military service. 

At this moment, however, the system of border 
defence had utterly broken down. Devastating hosts 
of free Germans had destroyed the fortifications on 
the frontier from Cologne to Strasburg, overthrown 
forty-five walled cities, and established themselves 
considerably to the south of their former boun- 
daries. The losses and the misery caused to the 
peaceable provincials were very great. Men of gen- 
tle birth and official rank, with their wives and chil- 
dren, were often led away in captive trains. Perhaps 
the most hopeful feature of the situation lay in the 
hatred felt by the Germanic tribes for life in walled 
towns, which prevented them from repairing and oc- 



98 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

cupying the fortifications they were able to seize, and 
so rendered the recovery of the strong positions a 
less desperate task. 

The three provincial tribes, or unions of tribes, 
whose ravages had worked the greatest confusion in 
Gaul, bore names which in the course of history 
have been at times associated with the three great 
nations of modern Europe : the Allemanni, the 
Franks, and the Saxons. Of the Allemanni and 
their encroachments from their early abodes on the 
Upper Rhine and the Danube we have already 
spoken. The Franks, who were likewise a nation, 
or incipient nationality, had in early times inhab- 
ited the country to the north of the Allemanni, on 
the right bank of the Rhine, from the Maine almost 
to the vicinity of the North Sea. The expeditions 
they sent out, however, traversed very great extents 
of territory. In the middle of the third century, we 
find that a band of them have passed through Gaul, 
seized Tarragona in Spain, and even sailed across to 
Carthage. The victories obtained over them by 
energetic Emperors, such as Claudius, Aurelian, Pro- 
bus, and Constantius Chlorus, might for a time check 
their advance or compel them to retreat, but did not 
avail to break their power. Meantime their valour 
was used and their fidelity tested in the Roman 
armies. The case of Silvanus, which we have just 
considered, is an instance of this policy and of its 
consequences. 

With the third great Teutonic foe of Rome, the 
Saxons, Julian was not much concerned, except in 
so far as their invasions had caused other tribes to 



3591 yulians Ccesarship in Gaul, 99 

adopt a migratory life. They dwelt between the 
mouths of the Rhine and the Elbe, and were the 
terror of the opposite coast of Britain, where a 
special officer (the Count of the Saxon Shore) had 
been appointed to withstand their ravages, which 
often rendered it difficult for the Gallic provinces to 
obtain the supplies of British corn and other pro- 
duce on which they depended. 

Julian arrived at Vienne, as we have seen, about 
midwinter, 355-6. Next spring, while he was en- 
grossed with harassing business and distracted with 
conflicting rumours, tidings came that the city of 
Augustodunum (Autun) had been attacked by a 
host of barbarians, probably Allemanni, and had 
only been saved from capture by the prompt aid of 
a band of Roman veterans. This news determined 
Julian to take active measures as soon as possible, 
and having made the necessary arrangements for 
the campaign, he set out from Vienne, and arrived 
at Autun (for familiarity's sake we will give the 
modern names), on the 24th of June. He had de- 
cided to carry the war into the enemy's country, 
and a rendezvous had been arranged for his forces 
and those of Marcellus at Reims. At Autun he held 
a council of war, in order to select the safest route. 
On hearing that the road leading through Auxerre 
and Troyes was the shortest, he resolved to follow 
it, and though much harassed by flying bands of the 
enemy, against which he had to be continually on 
his guard, he reached Reims in safety, and was met 
there by Marcellus and also by Ursicinus, who was 
to remain with him for that one expedition. After 



ioo yulian. Philosopher and Emperor, [356- 

a good deal of deliberation, the army pursued its 
way to the Rhine. While on the march, it encoun- 
tered imminent danger from an attack of the Alle- 
manni on its rear. From this time forward, Am- 
mianus tells us that Julian became more cautious, a 
statement which, with the record of previous dan- 
gers and escapes, has led later historians to read 
between his lines the story of sundry small disasters, 
at the cost of which the general's experience was 
purchased. 

Now began the main work of the campaign, the 
recovery of the towns and fortunes on the Rhine 
recently lost, or, where that was impossible, at least 
of their sites. Brumath (Brucomagus) was the first to 
come into Julian's power, after a conflict with the 
Allemanni, in which he obtained the advantage by 
arranging his forces in crescent form and enclosing 
the enemy between the two horns. But his greatest 
success was the recovery of Cologne from the 
Frankish kings or chiefs, who were forced to sign a 
treaty favourable to Rome. This town seems to 
have suffered less than others from the barbarian 
conquest and occupation, probably on account of 
the superior strength of its fortifications. No other 
of the Rhine fortresses was left standing, except 
Remagen, and perhaps a part of Coblentz. 5 

The Roman army now retired through the terri- 
tory of Treves to take up its winter quarters at Sens 
("apud Senonas "). It soon became evident how 
slight and superficial any conquest or recovery must 
be unless confirmed by the settling of garrisons in 
strong posts. The need was also seen of a large 



359] yulians Cczsarship in Gaul. 101 

army that should not be materially weakened by 
the loss pf such forces as Julian was obliged to leave 
in places like Cologne, Brumath, and Remagen, or 
in the more flourishing towns in which, for econ- 
omy's sake, they were quartered. A host of bar- 
barians speedily overran the country that Julian had 
just traversed, and even ventured to besiege him in 
Sens. They retreated after thirty days, but Julian's 
deliverance was due rather to the unskilfulness of 
the Germans in siege warfare than to any measures 
which, in his newly-acquired virtue of military pru- 
dence, he was able to take, or to any succour from 
outside. Marcellus, who was quartered in the neigh- 
bourhood, never attempted a diversion. He seems 
to have let Julian have his way in the summer cam- 
paign, but to have been by no means eager in saving 
him from personal inconvenience and danger. In 
fairness to Constantius it must be said that as soon 
as he heard of the misconduct of Marcellus, he re- 
called him, and sent out in his place one Severus, a 
man of capacity and merit. It was probably at the 
same time that Julian received, through the inter- 
cession of Eusebia, a considerable extension of his 
powers, and was permitted to summon volunteers to 
his standard. His guard of three hundred and sixty 
he regarded, according to Zosimus, as good for little 
else but praying ; a strange criticism, if it is really 
Julian's own, seeing that he more often reproaches 
the Christians with lack than with excess of devo- 
tion. On the departure of Marcellus for the Impe- 
rial Court, Julian sent thither a faithful eunuch, 
named Eutherius, an Armenian by birth, and singu- 



102 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

larly free from the faults supposed to be generally 
engrained in men of his class. Eutherius was suc- 
cessful in averting any blame that might have been 
thrown on his master, and Marcellus was ordered 
not to remove from his native town of Sardica. 

Between the campaigns, in the winter months, 
Julian had sufficient occupation in making prepara- 
tions for the next expedition, and in examining into 
the affairs of the provinces, while he strengthened 
body and mind with military exercises and literary 
studies. He earned the affection of the soldiers by 
his thoughtfulness in providing for their welfare. 
Giving a military turn to his Stoic principles, after 
the example of his hero-model, Marcus Aurelius, he 
reduced the list of luxurious dishes to be provided 
for his table by striking out pheasants and other 
delicacies, and himself partook of the fare of the 
common soldiers. It may be mentioned that strict 
temperance, or rather ascetic abstinence, marked his 
behaviour now and throughout his life. 6 Although, 
as we have seen, his authority did not supersede that 
of the ordinary civil governors, he was often besieged 
by petitioners for redress of private grievances. In 
judicial matters he seems to have erred rather on 
the side of clemency than on that of sternness, but 
before taking action in answer to petitions, he 
ordered full inquiry to be made by the provincial 
governors. He devoted considerable attention to 
financial affairs, and determined to effect an allevia- 
tion of the heavy taxes, by steadily declining to 
grant such exemptions as might benefit the rich at 
the expense of the poor. 



359] Julians Ccesarship tit Gaul. 103 

For his studies he had little time except what he 
stole from the night by his habit of rising before the 
dawn. He generally slept on a kind of rug, and 
after a very brief time of rest, arose and invoked the 
aid of Hermes before he passed to his tasks of busi- 
ness or of literature. It is at about this time that 
we must date three long orations of his that have 
come down to us, written in honour of Constantius 
and of Eusebia. 7 We have already had occasion to 
refer to these, especially to the panegyric of Euse- 
bia, as furnishing material for the personal history 
of Julian and for that of his family. In his lauda- 
tions of the Empress there is nothing that clashes 
with the views expressed in those letters of his which 
seem to convey his undisguised feelings. With re- 
gard to the two orations in honour of Constantius, 
the case is otherwise, and those who feel respect for 
the high moral qualities of Julian's character must 
regret that he was capable of writing them. At the 
same time, we must remember that complimentary 
orations were at that time so much in vogue, and 
the composition of them was regarded as so essen- 
tial a part of the work expected from a young 
rhetorician, that no one would be likely to take the 
adulatory expressions as seriously meant, or to inter- 
pret the high-sounding comparisons as representing 
the genuine feelings and sober thoughts of the 
orator. Still, there is a demoralising tendency in 
the art by which a rhetorician describes as superior 
to all the Homeric heroes, and as uniting in his own 
person all virtues and all talents, a character which, 
when writing freely, the same orator reproaches as 



104 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

arrogant, cruel, and unjust. The orations are, of 
course, overloaded with literary and historical illus- 
trations. They are, however, marked by considerable 
vigour of style, and they afford scope for bringing in 
a good many of the author's own sentiments. Thus 
he sketches the character of an ideal monarch, to 
which sketch the features of Constantius have to be 
accommodated. We observe the importance Julian 
attaches both to the dignity and to the responsi- 
bilities of the Imperial position, and the stress he 
lays on the gentler and more private virtues, such 
as clemency and chastity. In the oration in praise 
of Eusebia, the permission he had obtained by her 
means to study at Athens affords an excellent oppor- 
tunity for eulogising the city which stores up and 
distributes fertilising knowledge for all the world, 
as the Nile fructifies the thirsty land of Egypt. Her 
gift of books suggests a similar digression on the 
value of literature generally. More interesting how- 
ever, in this oration, is the evidence it affords of the 
high esteem in which Julian held the character and 
dignity of women, and his especial admiration for 
the more domestic types of female virtue. This 
respect for women also appears in those letters of 
his still extant which were written to various ladies. 
We may add that since all rhetorical compositions 
of this kind were cast in old Hellenic forms, Julian 
was free to express his own views as to the duty of 
piety towards the Gods, and as to the relations of 
man to Gods and daemons, without borrowing at all 
from Christian phraseology or conceptions. Thus 
if perhaps an excessive dissimulation is to be found 



359] yulians Ccesarship in Gaul. 105 

in these orations, they are at least free from any 
taint of religious hypocrisy. 

Although Julian was a great gainer by the sub- 
stitution of Severus for Marcellus, a new difficulty 
presented itself in the campaign of 357. He had to 
co-operate with another colleague whose sphere of 
authority lay to the east of his, and who was there- 
fore independent of his command and unwilling to 
contribute to his success. According to some his- 
torians, Constantius himself took the field against 
the Allemanni in 356, starting from Rhaetia and 
advancing along the Upper Rhine. 8 If so, he did 
not accomplish much, but soon returned to Milan, 
and thence to Rome, where he and the Empress 
were received in great splendour. Alarming move- 
ments of the Quadi and other tribes in the Danubian 
countries required his presence in Illyria. Mean- 
time he despatched Barbatio, the Magister Pedittim, 
from Italy to Basel, with an army of 25,000 men. 
Barbatio was a much older man than Julian, he had 
contributed as much as anyone to the fall of Gallus, 
and being in direct communication with the Em- 
peror, he had no intention of taking commands, or 
even advice, from the young Caesar. The design 
was to restrict the field in which the Allemanni 
roved and devastated at will, by means of a precon- 
certed march of two Roman armies from opposite 
sides. However, the tribe of the Laeti were too 
swift to be taken in this way. They advanced be- 
tween the armies and came as far as the neighbour- 
hood of Lyons, which town, however, was able to 
make a defence. Julian at once took steps to secure 



106 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

the three passes by which the barbarians could effect 
a retreat. This plan was on the whole successful. 
In one pass the Laeti suffered a defeat, and had to 
relinquish some of the booty. But the pass nearest 
to the army of Barbatio was purposely left unde- 
fended, and two military tribunes, Valentinian (after- 
wards Emperor) and Bainobaudes, whom Julian had 
sent to secure its occupation, were falsely accused 
to the Emperor, and removed from their posts. 

In other ways Barbatio continued to thwart 
Julian's plans. Rather than let the Caesar have 
certain boats required for a bridge over the Rhine, 
he preferred to set them on fire. When a convoy 
was on its way to Julian, he intercepted it, and 
burned all that he could not use. Julian made 
up for the want of boats by ordering an attack on 
one of the islands in the Rhine, where the stream 
was fordable. Rafts and booty were obtained, and 
a terrible slaughter followed, which caused the Ger- 
mans to decamp with their families and property 
from the neighbouring islands. The missing convoy 
had to be supplied by the gathering in, on the part 
of Julian's soldiers, of the corn which the Germans 
had sown for themselves. Meanwhile the restora- 
tion of the fortifications on or near the Rhine, 
especially those of Zabern, was actively carried for- 
ward. But the Allemanni had taken alarm and 
determined on an invasion en masse. Barbatio was 
severely defeated and forced to fall back on Basel, 
with the loss of great part of his supplies. Unable 
to attempt anything in reparation or in revenge, 
the inefficient general sent his men into winter 



359] Julians Ccesarship in Gaul. 107 

quarters, and himself repaired to the Imperial 
Court. 9 

The barbarian host which was advancing towards 
Julian's position consisted of thirty-five thousand 
men under the command of King Chnodomar and 
his nephew Agenaric or Serapio, who had received 
the latter, rather incongruous name in token that 
his father had been initiated into certain Greek mys- 
teries. Five lesser kings followed with their contin- 
gents, and there were other tribal leaders of high rank. 
Before attacking the Romans, Chnodomar, who had 
been informed by a deserter of their comparatively 
small number, sent an offensive message to Julian, 
bidding him restore to the Germans the territory that 
properly belonged to them. 10 Julian kept the envoys 
by him until he had finished the fortifications of 
Zabern, then marched in careful order, the infantry 
protected by the cavalry and light-armed troops, in 
the direction of Strasburg (Argentoratum). They 
arrived in sight of the enemy after a march of twenty- 
one Roman or about nineteen and one-third Eng- 
lish miles, and Julian wonld have preferred to stay 
for the night, to give his men rest and refreshment. 
But the feeling of the army and the advice of the 
Praetorian Praefect Florentius were for instant 
action, and with vigorous exhortations to the 
soldiers Julian agreed to give battle. The day was 
hotly contested, and the result seemed for a long 
time doubtful. Julian's cavalry on the right wing 
began to give way, and needed all his efforts to keep 
it from wild flight. He afterwards punished the 
cowardly band by making them show themselves in 



108 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

the camp in women's dress. Their panic seems to 
have been caused partly by the Germans' device of 
mixing a few foot-soldiers among the horsemen, who 
inserted themselves between the enemy's lines, and 
wounded the horses from beneath. The Roman in- 
fantry, especially the Praetorian band, stationed in 
the middle of the host, stood firm, and finally the 
better discipline and arms of the Romans, aided by 
the ubiquitous activity of Julian, the military skill 
and energy of Severus, and the fidelity and courage 
of the Gallic allies, prevailed over the superior num- 
bers and great physical strength of the barbarians. 
Six thousand Germans fell, and only 247 of the 
Romans. Many of the fugitives dashed into the 
waters of the Rhine, and Julian had to issue strict 
orders that they were not to be pursued further. 
King Chnodomarwas taken prisoner in a wood near 
by. His courage had deserted him, and he dis- 
gusted Julian by pleading for his life. He was sent 
captive to the Imperial Court, as a tangible proof to 
Constantius of the result of the conflict. 

This great victory, 11 won in trying circumstances, 
and against great odds, was momentous in its effects, 
principally, perhaps, from the terror it struck into 
the German tribes all around. Julian sternly re- 
pressed the acclamations of the soldiers which would 
have conferred then and there upon him the title of 
Augustus. It was more prudent for him to allow 
the Emperor to assume to himself the honour of the 
victory. This was not contrary to Roman Imperial 
usage, yet in the credit he took for a battle fought 
hundreds of miles from the place where he then was, 



3591 yulians Ccesarship in Gaul. 109 

Constantius reminds us of the belief into which (as 
report says) George IV. persuaded himself, that he 
had been personally present at Waterloo. 

After the victory, Julian returned to Zabern. He 
left his prisoners and his booty in the neighbour- 
hood of Metz, and begun an advance into the ene- 
my's country, crossing the Rhine near Mentz. Like 
all expeditions of the kind, this march was of a de- 
structive and devastating character. The houses of 
the natives were burned down and all their property 
wasted. The Romans marched on till they came 
to a thick wood, probably in the neighbourhood of 
Aschaffenburg on the Main. But the autumnal 
equinox was past, snow was beginning to fall, and 
the attempt to make further progress in a difficult 
and hostile country would have been decidedly rash. 
The Allemanni were at last willing to retreat. Julian 
granted them a ten months' truce, and received 
humble submission from three kings who had fought 
at Strasburg. He now prepared to go into winter 
quarters, but he had first to dislodge a company of 
six hundred Franks, whom Severus had come upon 
in his march towards Reims, and who had occupied 
two fortresses on the Meuse. It was not till after 
a long siege, in frosty weather, that they were 
obliged to yield themselves prisoners of war. 

The place in which Julian passed the winter of 
357-8 is one that had been of some slight import- 
ance from much earlier times. Yet he must be 
credited with having perceived the peculiar advan- 
tages of its position, and contributed not a little to 
its future greatness. " Beloved Lutetia, as the Gauls 



no yidi an, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

call the little city of the Parisii," comprised as yet 
little more than the island in the Seine, now covered 
by Notre Dame and the adjacent buildings, and the 
palace to the south of the river where Julian took 
up his abode, and which is still associated with his 
name. 12 It was near the junction of several military 
roads, and as a French historian has said, " the town 
was becoming what Paris is to-day, the, centre of 
resistance to Germany." In later times, writing in 
the far-off East, Julian remembered its good situa- 
tion, the purity of its water, the even flow of the 
river, and the temperate climate, which allowed of 
the culture of the vine and the fig, if their roots 
were covered with straw in winter. He told a story 
against himself how, confiding in that agreeable 
climate, he had, in Stoic fashion, refused to have 
his rooms warmed with a furnace, till, when the cold 
became intense, he sent for braziers, and narrowly 
escaped asphyxiation from the steam which exuded 
from the damp walls. 13 

While in Paris, Julian threw himself with energy 
into the work of financial reform. Here he was 
hindered by the Praetorian Praefect Florentius. We 
have already seen this man in the camp before the 
battle of Strasburg, giving advice which, though 
justified by the event, was contrary to the judgment 
of Julian and to the ordinary calculations of pru- 
dence. Florentius declared that some additional 
imposts were imperatively required. Julian denied 
the necessity, and refused to entertain the sugges- 
tions. Florentius appealed to Constantius, who 
wrote to Julian, bidding him place confidence in 



3591 yulians Cczsarship in Gaul. Ill 

the experience of the Praefect. Thereupon Julian 
replied that, wasted as the province had been, it 
could not possibly afford to raise more than the or- 
dinary revenue. His firmness had the desired result, 
and at the same time he asked and obtained power 
to rearrange the method of collecting taxes in the 
second province of Belgica, greatly to the allevia- 
tion of the distress from which the provincials were 
suffering. 

In the spring of 358, Barbatio, assisted by a compe- 
tent cavalry officer, was sent into Raetia to chastise 
the Juthungi, a tribe of Allemanni who had appar- 
ently not been comprised in the truce. Meantime Ju- 
lian had gathered from Aquitaine supplies (including 
biscuit, which seems to have been a novelty), sufficient 
for a long expedition, and now led his army towards 
the mouths of the Rhine. On the way he met a 
deputation of Salian Franks, which tribe had lately 
settled in Zealand, or perhaps in the country more 
to the south. These had come to demand terms of 
peace. Julian dismissed them with presents, then 
fell suddenly on the main army, and reduced them 
to sue for peace on more humiliating conditions. 14 
The Chamavi, another tribe of Franks, next felt his 
strong hand, and that of Severus. Having granted 
them peace on condition of retreat, he proceeded 
to fortify the line of the Meuse. At the same time 
he re-established the water communication between 
Britain and the Rhine country, which had for a time 
been interrupted. For this purpose he had to cause 
the building of a new fleet, in spite of difficulties 
which Florentius regarded as insuperable. It was 



112 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356- 

apparently through the machinations of this disap- 
pointed financier that some of the soldiers, being 
defrauded of their pay and worked upon by agita- 
tors, showed dangerous signs of insubordination. 
Even Severus seemed to be wavering in his loyalty 
and courage. Julian's intimate friend, Sallust, was 
recalled on suspicions received against him, a blow 
bitterly felt by Julian, as he showed in an apparently 
sincere though elaborate farewell address. Never- 
theless, the result of the campaign was favourable to 
the Roman arms, both on the Upper and the Lower 
Rhine. The stream was crossed, and a king of the 
Allemanni, named Suomar, who seems to have ruled 
between the Maine and the Rhine, was obliged to 
sue for peace. A barbarian free-lance, Charietto, was 
induced to enter the Roman alliance, and afterwards 
proved very useful. Another barbarian king, Hor- 
tar, was forced to deliver the Romans whom he 
had captured in his devastating raids, including 
some that he tried to keep back, till Julian sus- 
pected his attempted fraud and speedily defeated it. 
The winter months were again given to inquiries 
into civil affairs, and to judicial proceedings which 
Julian regulated with great attention, insisting on 
publicity, and on acquittal in absence of adequate 
proof of guilt. The next year (359) was marked 
by the establishment of corn magazines, the erect- 
ion of fortresses on the Rhine (at Bonn, Ander- 
nach, Bingen, and other places), and by another 
expedition across that river, in which Julian pene- 
trated further than he had done before, and reached 
the confines of the Burgundii and the Allemanni. 



359] Jidians Cczsarship in Gaul. 113 

It is noticeable that in marching through the terri- 
tories of those kings who had made peace the year 
before, Julian studiously avoided all kinds of plunder 
or vexation. The submission of the several chiefs 
of the more distant tribes was now secured. 

The story of wars of civilised against semi-bar- 
barous peoples is generally distinguished by deeds of 
cruelty and of perfidy. The Gallic wars of Julian are 
not an exception to this rule. But they had the 
merit of success. At the end of his fourth campaign, 
Julian may be regarded as having accomplished the 
task he had been sent to perform. The Gallic prov- 
inces were not likely to be soon again disturbed by 
the barbarians who had received so hard a lesson. 
The frontiers were again protected by fortresses ; 
food was secured to the provincials who dwelt in- 
land. The oppressive taxation could now be light- 
ened. Peace and security reigned in Gaul, and the 
distant Germans again reverenced the majesty of the 
Roman name. If Julian received no gratitude from 
his cousin, he probably expected none. Yet his 
achievements were none the less profitable to the 
Empire, and may strike us now with admiration, and 
seem, considering the character and education of the 
man who did them, almost unique in character. 
History knows of young military geniuses, like Alex- 
ander the Great, or Charles XII. of Sweden, who ob- 
tained wonderful victories without previous experi- 
ence. Yet the bent of Julian had been distinctly 
non-military, and he had been summoned from the 
lecture-room to the camp. History knows also of 
men of riper years, such as Epaminondas, Timoleon, 

8 



i 14 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [356-59 

and Oliver Cromwell, who only began a military 
career after their minds had been formed in other 
pursuits. But Julian became a great general while 
still full of youthful ardour for the studies which he 
was compelled to lay aside. There is in his character 
and powers a wonderful diversity, which seems, as it 
were, to blend several lives in one. He had become 
a general, a statesman, and a man of the world, 
without ceasing to be a student, an ascetic, and a re- 
ligious idealist. If, in his letters to his friends, he 
lamented the literary leisure of by-gone days, if he 
constantly asserted that the contemplative life was 
worthier than the active, and the merit of Socrates 
infinitely above that of Alexander, he let no such 
preferences appear openly, and shunned no irksome 
tasks in the camp or in the council chamber. If he 
stole hours from sleep to spend them in devout med- 
itation, aspiring speculation, and elaborate composi- 
tion, his daily life showed, at this stage of his career, 
no trace of pedantry or of indecision. His success 
on new and strange ground may be accounted for 
partly by the versatility of his mind. The man who 
could write the Oration on the Mother of the Gods in 
one night must have been able to move swiftly with 
brain and pen. But the main cause of that success 
lies deeper. The secret of it is to be found in the pos- 
session of an iron will, controlled by a stern sense of 
duty, and in an unswerving faith in the final triumph 
of good over evil. 

(For designs of coins selected as illustrations for this chapter, see page 262.) 



Notes on Chapter V. 115 

NOTES ON CHAPTER V. 

1 For this narrative, we have Ammianus, books xvi., xvii., and 
xviii., Zosimus, book iii. (apparently a far less trustworthy account), 
Julian's Letters to the Athenians, Libanius' Funeral Oration, etc. 
Of recent accounts, I have made most use of Miicke's Julians 
Kriegsthalen (Gotha, 1867), a careful and valuable study, though, 
perhaps, not quite fair towards Constantius, and H.' Schiller's 
Romische Kaiserzeit, iii., 3. A considerable difference of view pre- 
vails as to the extent to which the story of Julian's achievements is 
based on his own narrations. Mr. Hecker regards Julian's lost 
Commentaries as the source whence Ammianus, Zosimus, and Li- 
banius alike drew their statements. It does not seem probable, 
however, that the sober and impartial Ammianus blindly followed 
such records, even if they existed in as complete a form as Mr. 
Hecker supposes. 

2 Tillemont, Constance, xxxv., xxxix., etc. 

3 Afterwards Prefect of the Gauls, not the Sallust that accom- 
panied Julian in his last campaign. 

4 Jul., Or. ii., 51, D. Cf. Tillemont, A r otes stir Diocletian, xii. 

5 Ammianus seems to confound Remagen and Coblentz. His 
language is here not quite clear. Miicke regards the important for- 
tifications of Tres Tabernce, mentioned by Ammianus on several 
occasions, as the lines connecting Zabern in Alsace, Bergzabern, and 
Rheinzabern. 

6 Of Julian's earlier life we have hardly sufficient knowledge to 
assert this positively, though the very slightest tendency to licen- 
tiousness would undoubtedly have been made matter of accusation in 
the invectives of Gregory Nazianzen and others. 

1 Miicke {Jzilians Leben und Schriften) considers that the first 
oration in honour of Constantius was delivered in Milan, near the 
end of the year 355 ; that the second was worked up from the first 
while Julian was in Gaul ; and that the one in honour of Eusebia 
was composed just after her arrival in Rome, in the spring of 357. 
(Possibly Eusebia visited Rome in 356). 

8 See Tillemont, notes xxxviii., xxxix., etc. It is difficult to ac- 
count for all the movements of Constantius at this time. 

9 I follow the account of Ammianus, who, however, was not pres- 
ent at these events, as Ursicinus, to whose service he was attached, 
had been sent to the East. 



1 1 6 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

10 Not only Libanius (Epit. Jul.) but also the church historian 
Socrates (iii., i) represent the barbarians as producing letters on this 
occasion by which Constantius had authorised this march. What 
the letters really amounted to is uncertain. But Chnodomar probably 
interpreted them in very liberal fashion. 

11 The circumstances and topography of the battle of Strasburg 
have recently been the object of a thorough study by M. Wiegand, 
in Beilrage zur Landes tend Volkeskunde von Elsass-Lothringen. He. 
considers that the accounts of Libanius and of Ammianus are prob- 
ably from Julian, and he finds them remarkably exact, and easily 
fitting in with indications of topography. He would place the bat- 
tle-field more to the south-west than the generally accepted site. 

12 The " Thermes de Julien," near the Luxembourg and Palais de 
Clugny. 

13 Misopogon, 340, 341. 

14 Mucke's version of this affair would acquit Julian of bad faith 
towards ambassadors, but I cannot reconcile it with Ammianus. 





Roman Ensigns. 
That to the left that of the Celtae ; that to the right that of the Petulantes. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MILITARY MOVEMENTS IN EAST AND WEST. JULIAN 
BECOMES EMPEROR. 1 



359-360. 

i( Kairoi XPV V 8t]TtovBev 7tidrsvovra rw cprjvavri SecS to 
rspai Oappeiv. dXX, y6xvvofirjv Seivgq<3 kcci xaredvojUTjv, el 
do^ai/ii jur/ 7ti6vGD$ oixpi rsXovS vrtaxovdai KGovdrarria).^ 

Julian, Letter to the Athenians, 285. 

" Perfidus ille [Julianus] Deo, quamvis non perfidus urbi." 

Prudentius.* 

jHILE we are tracing the fortunes of 

Roman arms and the efforts towards 

| civil reform of upright Roman gov- 

u ernors in one corner of the vast 

I Empire, we are apt to forget that, 

S3j thousands of miles away, events may 

be happening pregnant with results 

to the Imperial house and to the whole Imperial 

system. In fact it may seem that at no time 

* A Spanish Christian poet, contemporary with Julian. 

117 




1 1 8 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

between those days and our own has there been 
such a close sympathetic connection between the 
frontier fortresses in the heart of Asia and the 
political capitals of Western Europe. Now, as then, _ 
no place in the civilised world can be regarded as 
entirely shut out from the influence of political dis- 
turbances or military movements that may occur 
in distant regions. All countries are again bound 
together, for good and evil, though not with the 
ancient cords. 

Thus, to understand the crisis which arrived in 
Julian's life while he was still occupied with the 
reconquest and the administration of Gaul, we 
must turn our attention to the course of affairs 
on the Danube and on the Tigris. Indeed the 
causes of the breach between Julian and his cousin 
seem to have been determined too superficially by 
those who have not grasped some important factors 
in the problem. By some, Constantius has been 
accused of a superfluous assertion of authority in 
making unreasonable demands. To others, Julian 
appears as an ungrateful subordinate, preferring his 
own ambitious plans to the welfare of his patron 
and to the interests of the whole Empire. A careful 
examination of the general conditions of the case 
may lead us to the conclusion that the demands 
of Constantius, though not made with a prudent 
regard to time and circumstances, were not deter- 
mined upon without pressing need, while Julian's 
opposition had also its grounds of justification, 
apart from its unforeseen and far-reaching results. 

It has been already remarked that it is not easy 



360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 119 

to account for all the movements of Constantius 
during the years of Julian's campaigns in Gaul. 
His principal residence was at Milan, whence several 
of his laws are dated. Whether or no he made an 
expedition against the Allemanni in 356 is a ques- 
tion we must leave on one side. 2 The matters 
which chiefly occupied him were a ceremonious 
visit to Rome, sundry expeditions against the tribes 
to the north of the Danube, and some ineffectual 
attempts at negotiation with the Persian king, fol- 
lowed by preparations for active hostilities. 

The object of the Emperor's visit to Rome was, 
according to his detractors, a childish desire to 
make a notable display of pomp and power in 
celebrating, some time after the event, his triumph 
over Magnentius. And there seems some reason in 
the complaint that a moment at which war was 
either imminent or actually being waged, in several 
provinces, was hardly the one to choose for ex- 
travagant expenditure on meaningless ceremonies. 
Yet it is quite possible that Constantius may have 
acted with some statesmanlike purpose when he 
determined on making this progress. Even if it 
were not so, it was surely a laudable curiosity that 
made him desirous of a personal inspection of the 
great sights of the Eternal City. Political prudence 
would suggest the expediency of showing himself, 
with all the paraphernalia of Oriental majesty, to the 
sight-loving populace that still considered them- 
selves as par excellence the Sovereign People of 
Rome, and to the wealthy dilettante officials who 
seemed to themselves to perpetuate the glories of 



1 20 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [359- 

the Roman Senate. The enthusiasm with which 
he was received might be considered to justify 
some munificent expenditure, for though it may not 
have been a matter of great moment what the actual 
denizens of Rome thought of their ruler, yet the 
dignified associations which clung to the ancient 
names might still be, as they again became centuries 
afterwards, a source of strength to the Imperial 
power. The attitude which Constantius took up 
towards the pretensions of his ancient capital is 
shown by two laws which date from about this 
time : by one, he withdrew from the Praefect of 
Rome the cognisance of cases of appeal from Italian 
and Sicilian courts; by another, all senators were 
bidden to reside in or near the city. 3 Thus Rome 
was not to hold a position of political headship in 
Italy, but at the same time Roman municipal dig- 
nities were to involve definite civil and financial 
duties, and not to be regarded as a mere ornament. 
Constantius was accompanied on this occasion by 
his wife Eusebia and his sister Helen, who seems to 
have come on a visit from her husband in Gaul, as 
we find her there before and afterwards. The entry 
into the city was very imposing. The Emperor was 
seated alone in a golden chariot, preceded by legion- 
aries with their standards held aloft and surrounded 
by guards in brilliant plate-armour. He preserved 
his usual imperturbable demeanour in countenance 
and manners, though startled once or twice at the 
loud roar of the cheering multitude and at the nov- 
elty of the spectacle before him. He condescended, 
however, to allow some indulgence to the fancies of 




CHARIOT-RACE BEFORE A CONSUL, 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 121 

the Roman people in the manner of holding the 
equestrian games, and he made a public speech from 
his seat in the Forum as well as one to the nobles in 
the Senate-house. He devoted some time to visit- 
ing all the principal buildings, baths, theatres, and 
temples. Though desirous of purging the city from 
pagan rites, to which end he had lately caused the 
removal from the Senate-house of the altar to Vic- 
tory, on which incense used to be offered, neither he 
nor those with him seem to have felt any scruple in 
admiring the temples which, even if according to 
law no longer used for religious purposes, must still 
have been full of religious symbols and works of art. 
In fact, the monument with which Constantius de- 
termined to enrich the city, in memory of his visit, 
was one of a distinctly pagan character. Constan- 
tine had issued orders for the removal to Rome of 
an obelisk which had adorned the city of Thebes in 
Upper Egypt, and which was connected with the 
worship of the sun, and bore inscriptions in honour 
of a solar deity and of one of the Egyptian kings. 
Augustus had once thought of bringing it away, but 
had refrained in order to spare the religious feelings 
of the people. Constantine, however, had no such 
scruples, for he considered, as Ammianus says, "that 
it was no injury to religion to remove a religious 
object from one temple to dedicate it in Rome, the 
temple of the whole world/' The attempts of Con- 
stantine to remove it were cut short by his death, 
but Constantius carried out the project. With vast 
labour it was brought to Rome and set up. In later 
times it was thrown down, but was re-erected by 



122 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

Pope Sixtus V., and stands to this day before the 
church of San Giovanni Laterano. 

The original idea of Constantius had been to give 
an equestrian statue to the city, like that in the 
Forum of Trajan, with which he had been much im- 
pressed. But a Persian fugitive who accompanied 
him suggested that such a steed would require a 
stable to correspond, and Constantius did not intend 
to construct another Forum. If Hormisdas had 
suggested that the rider also should be of Trajanic 
mould, the remark would have been equally to the 
point. This same Persian, on being asked what he 
thought of Rome, replied that he was glad to learn 
that men died there as elsewhere. Whether the 
remark was dictated by a spirit of Oriental fatalism 
or by dislike of an overpopulated city, we are not 
told. 

Constantius was obliged to abridge his agreeable 
visit to Rome and hasten northwards, because of 
alarming news received from the regions of the 
Danube. 

The vast plains of the southern and western parts 
of the country known to us as Russia-in-Europe, 
with some regions more to the south, including the 
district between the Danube and the Theiss, were at 
this time the abode of wandering hosts of fierce and 
predatory horsemen, belonging to the race known as 
Sarmatians. These had given a good deal of trouble 
to preceding emperors. Diocletian and afterwards 
Constantine seem to have flattered themselves that 
they had reduced them to subjection, but people of 
their character and habits of life are not easily sub- 



360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 123 

dued, as King Darius had experienced long before. 
According to the ordinary lines of Roman policy, 
the people of the Thracian Chersonesus had been 
engaged to make war on the Sarmatians, and had 
been rewarded for their successful intervention, and 
subsequently, when the Gothic power in those coun- 
tries became more formidable, Roman aid was given 
to the Sarmatian tribes, into which a Vandal ele- 
ment seems to have been received, against the yet 
more dangerous foe. When, however, the Sarma- 
tians found that the Romans were either unwilling 
or unable to give them much help, they adopted the 
imprudent course of placing arms in the hands of a 
subject race, or of subject races, known as the Limi- 
gantes. These were successful not only in defeating 
the Goths, but in establishing their own indepen- 
dence against their former masters, and obtaining 
fixed territories for themselves. When thus weak- 
ened, the Sarmatians received more encouragement 
from the Romans, and were permitted to settle in 
Pannonia and other border provinces. Some of 
them, however, preferred the alliance of other bar- 
barian hosts, especially the Quadi, who seem to 
have been of Germanic race, and while Constantius 
was in Rome, he heard that the Quadi and the 
Sarmatians, as well as the Suevi, were ravaging the 
Danubian lands. He does not seem to have ac- 
complished much against them that year, but he 
wintered at Sirmium, a town on the Save near the 
Sarmatian frontier, so as to be ready for military 
operations in the spring. 

Early the next year (358) news came that the 



124 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

Quadi and Sarmatians had joined their forces and 
were doing great mischief in the provinces immedi- 
ately to the west of the Danube, below the point 
of its great bend southwards and to the south of its 
lower course (the Pannonias and Upper Msesia). At 
the same time the not far. distant province of Raetia 
was being invaded by German forces, with which, as 
we have seen, Barbatio had to contend. The Em- 
peror himself, at about the end of March, crossed 
the Danube and marched into the enemies' country. 
The barbarians fled to the mountains. But the sight 
or the tidings of their burning homesteads (as they 
had something to burn they cannot have been en- 
tirely nomadic) induced both Quadi and Sarmatians 
to sue for peace. Constantius prudently contrived 
to keep the two sets of negotiations distinct. After 
some difficulties, terms were arranged. Hostages 
were to be given, captives restored, and the hosts to 
retreat. A fine young barbarian named Zizais, who 
had taken an active part in bringing about the agree- 
ment, was acknowledged by the Emperor as King of 
the Sarmatians, and that formidable race was thus 
made to own the authority of Rome. This authority 
involved the duty of protecting the client people 
against their foes and former slaves. The Limigantes 
had not been behind their quondam superiors in 
taking advantage of the opportunity given of invad- 
ing the Roman provinces. Nor were they behind 
the others in making professions of submission and 
requests for terms of peace. The Emperor had deter- 
mined to insist on a wholesale migration of the tribe. 
But he consented to a parley first, and even invited 



360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 125 

them to cross the Theiss and come to his camp for 
that purpose. They arrived en masse in warlike 
array, and their formidable mien, together with a 
real or assumed attempt to attack the sacred person 
of the Emperor, seemed to the Roman generals to 
justify an onslaught which degenerated into a mas- 
sacre in which neither age nor sex was spared. The 
remnant of the Limigantes retired humiliated to the 
distant lands assigned to them, while the Romans 
advanced up the rivers into the territory of those 
Sarmatian and allied tribes that yet held out, and 
reduced them to some kind of subjection. Constan- 
tius again wintered at Sirmium. He had taken the 
title of Sarmaticus, but his task was by no means 
complete. Next year news came that the Limi- 
gantes were wandering away from their new quar- 
ters. The Emperor advanced into north-eastern 
Pannonia. Here another conference with the host 
was projected, and this time the treachery seems to 
have been on the side of the barbarians. When they 
perceived that the Romans were unprepared for an 
attack, they raised their war-cry and advanced tow- 
ards the Imperial throne. Constantius only escaped 
by riding off at full speed. Subsequently, the bar- 
barians were very severely defeated in the encounter, 
but there was also some loss on the Roman side. 
The success of the Roman arms seemed, however, to 
have rendered the frontier in these regions fairly 
secure. The Emperor returned to Sirmium, and 
thence proceeded to Constantinople, to devise means 
for meeting the yet more serious dangers that threat- 
ened the Empire from the East 



126 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [359- 

Meantime, Paul, " the Chain," was doing more 
damage probably than any barbarian chief to the 
reputation and authority of his master, by instituting 
a series of prosecutions based on reports of dreams 
and oracular responses. Constantius has the credit 
of certain measures for putting a stop to soothsaying 
and other pagan superstitions. It would not be easy, 
however, to determine how far his zeal against such 
practices was aroused by a jealousy on behalf of 
Christianity, and how far by the more personal jeal- 
ousy of his restlessly suspicious temperament. 

At the same time, negotiations had been going on 
between Constantius and the great ruler of the East, 
in which probably both parties desired rather to 
gain time than to establish a permanent understand- 
ing. These negotiations were begun, apparently, 
without direct Imperial authorisation, by the Praefect 
of the East, Musonianus, and the Dux of Mesopo- 
tamia, Cassianus. Sapor, as already stated, had gone 
to repel an invasion on his eastern frontier, and it 
was long before he could receive the letter from his 
general, Tamsapor, respecting the Roman overtures. 
In 358, however, he made peace with the chiefs of 
the warlike tribes, against which he had been con- 
tending, and some of which — especially the Chion- 
ites, acted as very valuable allies in the war which 
ensued. Feeling now at liberty to turn his attention 
to his western provinces, he sent a certain Narses 
with presents and a letter for Constantius. The em- 
bassy arrived at Sirmium in March, 358. The letter 
(given by Ammianus) is thoroughly Oriental, both 
in style and in significance. It begins : " Sapor, 



360] Julian Becomes Emperor. 127 

King of Kings, Sharer in the Stars, Brother of 
the Sun and the Moon, to my brother, Constan- 
tius Caesar." The King goes on to congratulate 
Constantius on his having renounced the desire to 
acquire the goods of others, and after making the 
questionable statement that it is the great privilege 
of those in high rank always to speak their own 
minds, he roundly requests him to give up Armenia 
and Mesopotamia, as rightfully belonging to Persia, 
the ancient boundary of which had been the river 
Strymon. He dwells with complacency on his 
own virtues, declaring that he never from early 
youth has done any act of which he has had to re- 
pent, advises the Emperor to consult for the well- 
being of the whole by cutting off the superfluous 
parts, and finally declares that if his ambassador 
does not bring back a favourable answer, he will pre- 
pare to take the field, with all his forces, next spring. 
Constantius, in reply, could not but repel the insinua- 
tion that Mesopotamia was a " diseased limb to be 
cut off." He rejected the humiliating terms offered, 
and expressed his confidence in the ultimate success 
of the Roman arms. Nevertheless he sent compli- 
mentary presents to Sapor, and an embassy of three, 
one of whom, Eustathius, belonged to the rhetori- 
cal philosophers of Asia Minor, whose influence in 
education and in the ornamental part of public 
affairs we have already noticed. But in this case, 
in spite of the pleasure which the eloquence of 
Eustathius is said to have given to the Great King, 
the breach was too wide to be filled by a load of 
rhetoric. The proposal that the status quo should 



128 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

be maintained was rejected. The embassy re- 
turned disappointed from Ctesiphon in Babylonia 
where Sapor had given them audience. One more 
mission was sent, with no better success. It was 
evident that a serious war was at hand. 

It was fortunate for the Romans that the Sarma- 
tians had been subdued and that Gaul was well-nigh 
pacified. It was probably at this time that Julian 
sent to the Emperor a considerable force, both of 
infantry and cavalry, that had acquired experience 
and glory on the Rhine. But two serious disadvan- 
tages made the Roman cause less hopeful. One 
was the desertion of a certain Antoninus, who had 
been an official in the finance department of the 
eastern provinces, and whose fortunes had been 
broken by ruinous law-suits and unfair decisions. 
Having vainly attempted to recover them at the ex- 
pense of the State, he fled with his family, his 
possessions, and what was far more important, his 
knowledge of government secrets, to the army of 
the Persians, where he was received with open arms. 
The other misfortune which befell the Romans at 
the outset was the withdrawal of power from the 
one man likely to be able to meet the storm. 
Ursicinus had been holding command in Comma- 
gene, the most north-easterly province of Syria. 
Meantime, his foes at Court were plotting against 
him, the suspicions of the Emperor were aroused, 
and he received a sudden summons to return to 
Europe. When hostilities broke out, however, he was 
quite indispensable. He was accordingly sent back 
to Mesopotamia with the office of Commander of the 



360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 129 

Infantry lately held by Barbatio. That General, 
with his wife, had, in consequence of foolish tamper- 
ings with diviners, met with the same fate which 
during this reign overtook many much worthier 
people. But though entrusted with some military 
authority, Ursicinus was placed in subordination to 
a wealthy and inert old man named Sabinianus, who, 
though totally incapable of conducting a campaign 
himself, was able to thwart the measures of his abler 
colleague. 

In all his military expeditions, Ursicinus had a 
devoted supporter, and, except when the fortunes of 
war parted them, a constant companion, in the his- 
torian Ammianus Marcellinus. Thanks to his 
literary labours, we are able to realise the character 
of a war which, in its romantic incidents and cir- 
cumstances of pomp and show, suggests to us other 
wars carried on in much the same regions many 
centuries later. The hostilities between Sapor and 
the generals of Constantius can hardly be considered 
as a crusade, though they were waged between 
Christians and fire-worshippers. But though the 
religious element was not prominent in the conflict, 
it forms part of the unending struggle between East 
and West. The romantic character is partly due to 
Sapor himself, who shows touches of chivalrous 
feeling in his courtesy towards ladies, both in the 
case of dedicated virgins, and of the beautiful wife 
of a Roman official who fell into his hands. Ursi- 
cinus also has interesting traits of character. We 
are told of his efforts to save a stray child, and of 

a dramatic interview between him and the traitor 
9 



1 30 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

Antoninus. The story is full of hair-breadth escapes 
and of deeds of daring, especially on the part of the 
Gauls, who abhorred the slow work of defending 
besieged towns, and could only be kept in subordina- 
tion by being allowed to indulge their appetite for 
warlike exploits. On the other side are splendid 
Asiatic barbarian leaders, like old Grunbates, King 
of the Chionites. The details need not be given 
here. Ursicinus and Ammianus left their superior 
to his inert leisure and hurried into Mesopotamia, 
where they put the city of Nisibis in a state of de- 
fence. The town of Carrhae was abandoned and the 
surrounding country wasted by fire, to check the 
progress of the Persian and allied hosts arriving up 
the Tigris from Nineveh. Amida, a very important 
town on the Tigris, near the borders of Armenia, 
Cappadocia, and Mesopotamia, was taken after a 
siege of seventy-three days, during which great 
valour and great engineering skill were shown on 
both sides, and the efforts of Ursicinus to relieve the 
city were foiled by the excessive caution of Sabini- 
anus. Further insult and injury were heaped upon 
Ursicinus, in that the loss of Amida was punished 
by his degradation from his military rank. He in- 
dignantly protested against the false view which 
Constantius derived from his courtiers of the state 
of affairs, and exhorted him to take the field him- 
self. Constantius had probably made up his mind 
to do so soon after the Sarmatian war was over. 
Meantime Sapor retreated with the booty of Amida 
and went into winter quarters. 

From this brief narrative some points are manifest 



36 oj yulian Becomes Emperor. 131 

which we must bear in mind in forming our judg- 
ment as to succeeding events. More troops were 
certainly wanted in the East, and also a capable com- 
mander. And far the best troops were those that 
came from Gaul. One detachment from Illyria had 
been ignominiously cut to pieces early in the cam- 
paign. In Gaul at this time was a numerous and 
well-seasoned army. And if "that goat," as Con- 
stantius called his bearded cousin, had achieved all 
the victories, of which the court was tired of hearing, 
he could surely spare some soldiers to his hard-pressed 
superior and imperial colleague. The prsefect Flo- 
rentius, who, as we have seen, had reasons of his 
own for not loving Julian, offered advice which Con- 
stantius was only too ready to follow. Possibly, as 
Julian afterward asserted, their ultimate project was 
to divest the Caesar of all his military authority. 
The immediate demand was that four of the best 
companies of auxiliary troops, the Heruli, Batavi, 
Petulantes, and Celtae, together with a detachment 
of picked men from the other forces, should be at 
once despatched under the command of Lupicinus, 
for the Persian War. 

Libanius, who does poor service to Julian by per- 
sistently blackening the deeds of Constantius, asserts 
what is simply absurd when he would make us be- 
lieve that there was no special need for soldiers in 
the East, and that Constantius had no serious inten- 
tion of making an oriental campaign. The Emperor 
probably wished to test Julian's fidelity to the ut- 
most, and it is not probable that he thoroughly real- 
ised the difficulty of obeying his commands. The 



132 yuliaUy Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

orders were not likely to be the more agreeable from 
being entrusted to commissioners whom Julian be- 
lieved to be personally hostile to his interests, es- 
pecially to the tribune Decentius. Had Constantius 
merely signified, in a confidential manner, his needs 
and desires, without specifying the regiments or the 
commander, it would have been only right and rea- 
sonable for Julian, his colleague and possible succes- 
sor, to show himself forward in considering the needs 
of the East as of the West. But in the way of exe- 
cuting these specific commands there lay difficulties 
familiar enough to Julian, with which Constantius 
was but imperfectly acquainted. In the first place, 
the pacification of Gaul was not so completely ef-. 
fected that so large a contingent of troops could be 
safely withdrawn. Had that pacification been com- 
plete, the commissioners would not have found 
Julian without crossing the British Channel. A de- 
vastating raid of the Picts and Scots across the 
border of the British provinces demanded the 
prompt intervention of Roman troops under a 
Roman general. Had Julian considered it prudent 
to leave Gaul at this juncture, it is not impossible 
that London, instead of Paris, might have witnessed 
his elevation to the Empire. Under the circum- 
stances, however, he thought it wiser to send over 
an efficient force under the Magister Armorum 
Lupicinus, a man of ability and experience. This 
created a further difficulty in the way of executing 
the Emperor's orders, since Lupicinus had been 
nominated to the command of the soldiers who were 
to go to Asia, and among those under his command 



360] yuli an Becomes Emperor. 133 

in Britain were some of the bands expressly- 
demanded, especially the brave Batavians, whose 
ancestors had given great trouble to the Roman 
authorities, and who are commonly regarded as the 
progenitors of the doggedly heroic Dutch nation. 
Some of the Germanic auxiliaries had only joined 
the Roman armies on the special condition that they 
should not be sent South of the Alps, and Julian 
might well complain that it would be impossible 
ever to obtain recruits if Rome refused to keep her 
plighted word to her barbarian allies. Many of the 
men, too, had wives and children, whom, if they left 
them now, they had faint hopes of ever seeing 
again. 

In fact it would seem that Constantius, though 
head of a military monarchy, failed to realise the 
conditions on which supremacy can be exercised 
over the whole extent of a vast empire. Soldiers 
who were well aware that on their shoulders rested 
the whole effective power of the reigning house, were 
not likely to consent to be moved like pawns across 
the Imperial chess-board to subserve the interests of 
nobler pieces, or of the immoveable director of the 
game. Of the three motive powers by which masses 
of armed men can be readily swayed, patriotism, the 
hope of glory and gain, and loyalty to a personal 
leader, all were in this case either absent or opera- 
tive in the opposite direction from that indicated in 
the Imperial commands. What patriotism existed 
in Julian's army was Gallic, not Roman. His men 
knew and cared nothing about Mesopotamia, but 
they felt the importance of not suffering Gaul to 



134 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

become the prey of barbarous northern hosts. The 
advantages they might gain for themselves in the 
East were very shadowy. Roman arms had not of 
late been very successful there, the country was un- 
known to them, and the risk great, while Constantius 
had no military prestige to attract them. They 
were ready enough, most of them, to follow Julian, 
because he had shared in their hardships, and led 
them to glorious victories. They, or their officers, 
saw in the projected movement the beginning of a 
process by which their beloved leader was to be 
deprived of all credit and authority, and possibly 
brought before long to share the fate of his luckless 
brother Gallus. 

Julian was placed in an exceedingly difficult posi- 
tion. Though not prepared for opposition, he con- 
sented under protest, at least so far as the auxiliaries 
from beyond the Rhine were concerned. He 
requested the commissioners to wait till Florentius, 
who was at Vienne in South Gaul, and Lupicinus 
could be summoned to Paris to give their advice. 
But Florentius preferred to leave his superior alone 
in this extremity. The fidelity of Lupicinus, too, 
was doubtful, and he had work to do beyond the 
sea. The commissioners meantime urged haste, and 
the tribune, Sintula, began to raise levies, paying no 
heed to warnings or remonstrances. Julian, in des- 
pair, offered to throw up his authority altogether, 
and retire into private life, but the suggestion seems 
not to have been taken seriously. 

The act which brought about the crisis is (accord- 
ing to Zosimus) to be attributed to some of the 



360] Julian Becomes Emperor. 135 

officers in the army. Inflammatory notices were 
anonymously drawn up and circulated in one of the 
chief bands commanded to march, the Petulantes. 
They ran somewhat in this fashion : " We are ban- 
ished, like condemned criminals, to the ends of the 
earth. Our dear ones, whom our swords have 
rescued from captivity, will fall again into the hands 
of the Allemanni." A disturbance was naturally 
aroused, and tidings of it were brought to Julian, 
who had not left his winter quarters in Paris. He 
hastened to avoid dangerous consequences, as well 
as to satisfy the justice of the complaints, by mak- 
ing arrangements for the wives and children of the 
soldiers to accompany them on the march. At the 
same time, he advised Decentius not to arrange the 
route so that the forces should pass through Paris. 
This advice, like the rest which Julian had offered, 
was disregarded. 

When the troops arrived before Paris, Julian went 
out to meet them, and endeavouring to make the best 
of a bad business, spoke cheerfully to the soldiers of 
the great rewards for which they might hope in the 
East, and invited the officers to a farewell dinner, at 
which he encouraged them to make any parting 
requests of him that they desired. Of course it 
might easily be alleged afterwards by Julian's ene- 
mies that he was secretly at the bottom of the 
resistance of the soldiery, that the anonymous 
papers were drawn up at his instigation, and that 
the farewell dinner gave an excellent opportunity 
for an outbreak of insubordination. On the other 
side we can place Julian's most solemn assertions, 



l 3& Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

to friends such as Maximus, as well as to public 
bodies, that what was done occurred without his 
connivance, and even against his will. And, con- 
sidering all the circumstances, this seems the most 
probable view of the case, though we may never be 
able to decide, and perhaps Julian himself scarcely 
knew, exactly to what extent personal ambition, the 
belief in his special vocation, and a profound dis- 
trust of the Emperor, may have influenced him in 
permitting what he was after all powerless to 
prevent. 

During the night, the excitement in the camp 
waxed high. Julian retired to the apartments in 
the palace which he occupied with his wife, but was 
soon aroused by the din of arms and of many voices 
uttering the momentous cry " Julian Augustus." He 
endeavoured at first to pacify the men by assuring 
them that he would secure the withdrawal of the 
Imperial order for their removal. As he prevailed 
nothing, he kept the bolts of his room fastened, and, 
looking through an opening in his chamber to the 
starry skies, he besought Heaven for a token. Some 
sign, probably a meteor, at once appeared, yet with 
the inconsistency of most people who consult oracles 
and observe stars, he did not at once resign himself 
to the decision. After a while, however, the door 
was broken open, the soldiers forced their way in, 
and hoisted him on a shield. A cry was raised for 
a diadem with which to crown him. No such thing, 
of course, was at hand, and it was proposed to take 
a necklace or coronet from among his wife's jewelry. 
But Julian rejected what would have seemed to 



360] Julian Becomes Emperor. 137 

prognosticate an effeminate character for his reign. 
Finally a standard-bearer belonging to the Petulantes 
unbuckled his military collar and placed it on Julian's 
head. This rough act of coronation accomplished, 
Julian, in fear for his life, as some said, or wishing 
to prevent the Imperial honour from being accepted 
by another, as he afterwards said to Constantius, 
yielded to the storm. The die was cast and he was 
Emperor. 

Yet the partisans of Constantius made at least an 
effort, by bribing the ringleaders, to create dissen- 
sions among them or to reverse their act. An officer 
of Helen's household discovered their machinations. 
There was a fresh rush of soldiers to the palace, and 
the cry resounded : " Soldiers, both strangers and 
citizens, never give up the Emperor ! " When they 
found him alive and safe in the council-chamber, 
their joy knew no bounds. They next prepared to 
wreak their ill-will on the leaders of the opposite 
party, but Julian succeeded in saving their lives. 
Decentius was permitted to escape, and he returned 
at once to the Imperial court. Florentius, when he 
heard at Vienne what had been done, departed, as 
might have been expected, in the same direction. 
His family and his property were scrupulously re- 
spected by Julian. Lupicinus, on his return from 
Britain, was placed under temporary arrest. 

The first tasks which lay before Julian under these 
changed circumstances were to make sure of the 
disposition of the whole Gallic army, and to attempt 
to come to some sort of understanding with Con- 
stantius. Of these, the first undertaking was far 



l 3% Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

easier than the second. The smaller band which, 
under the command of Sintula, had already begun 
its march, returned to the main body, and the new- 
made Emperor, who had, on accepting the diadem, 
already promised the usual donative to the soldiery, 
made a harangue to the army, expressive of his 
gratitude to them and of the community of fortunes 
which bound them together, and announcing his 
intention of making all military appointments with 
regard solely to the merits of the candidates, with- 
out giving ear to personal recommendations. He 
immediately put this rule in practice by' refusing 
promotion to some members of the commissariat- 
stafT of the Petulantes and Celtae whom their com- 
rades wished to see in higher offices. He seems, 
however, to have given no umbrage by this refusal. 

He next drew up a careful letter to Constantius, 
who, he doubted not, had already heard from De- 
centius and others of the unexpected turn which 
affairs had taken in Gaul. He protested his own 
loyalty, to which his labours and conflicts since his 
elevation to the Csesarship had abundantly testified. 
He showed the great provocation under which the 
army had acted, and his own unwillingness to accept 
the dignity violently forced upon him. He urged 
the necessity, in the present circumstances, of avoid- 
ing a breach between the rulers, and the expediency 
as well as the wisdom on the Emperor's part of par- 
doning what had been done and accepting the con- 
ditions offered. These were that Julian should 
furnish him with Spanish horses and with certain 
contingents of barbarian forces that could be spared ; 



360] yulian Becomes Emperor. 139 

that the Emperor should appoint men of worth to 
the post of Praetorian Prefect, and leave other 
appointments, civil and military, in the hands of 
Julian himself, who also claimed the selection of his 
own guards. He again warned Constantius against 
the scheme of removing the flower of the Gallic 
Army into Asia. Finally he expressed his desire 
not to insist on his new dignity, as he preferred to 
appeal to past experience and future prospects in 
urging a course which might make for peace. 

This letter as Ammianus gives it (though he does 
not profess to make a perfectly literal translation) 
agrees in the main with what is told us by Julian 
himself. But now comes in a rather puzzling diffi- 
culty. Ammianus says that with this reasonable 
and modest letter was sent another, drawn up in 
very different terms, and full of biting reproaches. 
This document he declines to publish, as he would 
not consider such publication to be seemly.* Now 
Ammianus generally aims at giving an honest and 
impartial account of the events he is narrating, he 
is not slow to reproach Constantius on his own 
account, nor does he try to hide Julian's faults when 
he considers him unfair or undignified. What could 
have prevented him from telling us more about so 
important a document? Again, we can hardly be- 
lieve that Julian was likely to spoil the effect of a 
carefully written letter by sending with it a childish 
ebullition of petty spite. His great desire, according 
to his own writings and to the probabilities of the 
case, was to avoid a rupture as long as possible. 

* Or because he had not been allowed to see it. 



1 40 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. t359- 

Why should he have gone out of his way to give 
perfectly gratuitous provocation to the Emperor ? 
That some private letter was written seems indubi- 
table, if our text of Ammianus is correct. Three 
hypotheses may be suggested : (1) That we have a 
confusion here between the communications made 
by the embassy and those which came later, after 
Julian's offers had been rejected. (2) That the second 
and secret letter was sent with the other, but not to 
be delivered if the first were favourably accepted : or 
(3) That the secret letter was a part of Julian's orig- 
inal communication but that it contained matter on 
which Ammianus preferred to be reticent. Here I 
would hazard a conjecture : May it not have related 
to religious affairs, and have insisted, as an additional 
demand, on freedom of ritual and profession to 
Julian himself and to those who with him adhered 
or wished to adhere to pagan ways ? Ammianus 
always seems to have been a sober-minded neutral 
in religious matters ; he had no sympathy with 
Julian's ruling passion, and would probably have 
regarded his demands as very unreasonable ; he was 
desirous, moreover, that his work should be read by 
men of all parties, and should steer clear of burning 
controversies ; thus he might have regretted that 
such a letter was ever written, and seeing that it 
had been written, might wish to say as little about 
it as was consistent with his love of truth and fair- 
ness. But however this may be, there can be little 
doubt that the primary object of Julian in sending 
the embassy was to make a satisfactory accommo- 
dation. 



360] Julian Becomes Emperor, 141 

To our notions of military subordination and ad- 
ministrative authority, it may seem that Constantius 
could not, consistently with the dignity of his posi- 
tion, acknowledge the result of a mutiny as if it 
were a lawful act. But the experience of centuries 
had forced the rulers of the Empire to regard the 
preference of the soldiery as a factor seldom omitted 
in the elevation or destruction of potentates and 
dynasties. There were examples, too, like that of 
the rise of his own father, Gonstantine, in which the 
forcibly expressed choice of the soldiery had subse- 
quently received the sanction that could not safely 
be withheld. But either Constantius, or those 
whose influence prevailed with him, felt too bitterly 
against Julian to receive his advances in a pacific 
spirit. 

His friend and well-wisher, the Empress Eusebia, 
was already dead, and he had now probably no 
friends at court. Constantius, in his progress, had 
reached Caesarea in Cappadocia when the ambassa- 
dors arrived. Having received their despatches, he 
exhibited such wrath as to strike terror into them, 
and refused to give them audience. They were, 
however, permitted to return in safety. At the 
same time the quaestor Leonas was sent with a 
letter to Julian, bidding him confine himself to the 
authority he had previously held, and making sun- 
dry appointments in the government of Gaul. In 
particular Nebridius was to succeed Florentius as 
Praetorian Praefect. 

When Leonas arrived at Paris, Julian received 
him with personal friendliness, but as the letter 



142 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [359- 

from Constantius was received and read aloud in the 
presence of the whole army, there was not much 
likelihood that the conditions, especially as to the 
proposed abdication, would be accepted. Leonas 
was sent back with a description of the opposition 
made by the army to the Emperor's suggestions. 
Of the new appointments, that of Nebridius alone 
was recognised. 

Other negotiations, the details of which are 
unknown, were carried on, both parties being unwil- 
ling to begin a civil war. A certain bishop Epic- 
tetus was commissioned to assure Julian, from 
Constantius, that at least his life would be secure if 
he complied with his cousin's requirements. But, 
ambitious motives apart, Julian had to consider his 
duty to the soldiers and the provincials who had 
entrusted themselves to his care. He declared at 
once his political intentions and his religious belief 
in proclaiming openly that he preferred to trust 
himself and his life to the Gods rather than to the 
words of Constantius. 

Different stories are given as the ground of 
Julian's confident assurance that the events which 
had raised him to the Empire were a call to a 
divinely appointed task. According to his own nar- 
rative, he saw, at the critical moment, the sign he 
had prayed for in the heavens. Others tell of his 
dreams, or of his enquiries, made by means of the 
occult sciences. Modern readers can hardly justify 
a usurpation for which no higher sanction can be 
brought. Nor can they easily discern a vox dei in 
the shouts of an insurgent army. But if we must 



360] 



Julian Becomes Emperor. 



Hi 



acknowledge Julian's accession to be, in a sense, a 
departure from the legitimate order, we must also re- 
member how little legitimate principle was to be 
found in the common practice of succession to the 
Imperial throne, and how hopeless it was to find any 
orderly means of discovering and enthroning the 
man whom the crisis of events demanded. The 
Petulantes and the Celtae boldly cut the knot, and 
decided that he alone who had driven away the 
devastating hosts of the enemy deserved to hold 
supreme power over the lands he had saved. 





Coin of Julian. 
Reverse, Securitas REiPVBlicse. The Bull Apis ; above, stars. 



144 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 



NOTES ON CHAPTER VI. 

1 The chief authorities for the circumstances of Julian's elevation 
to the empire are his letter to the Athenians, and Ammianus, Book 
xx. The accounts given in Libanius, Epitaph, andZosimus, iii., 9, 
are apparently based on Julian's own accounts. We have no detailed 
narrative written from the opposite standpoint. Ammianus is excel- 
lent for the Persian War. I have followed him closely also for that 
with the Sarmatians. 

2 See Tillemont, Constance, Note xxxviii. 

3 Cod. Theod. xi., 30, 27 ; vi., 4, 11. 





Coin of King Sapor II. 
A.D. 340-370. Reverse, Fire-altar. 



CHAPTER VII. 



WARS IN EAST AND WEST CONTINUED. DEATH OF 

CONSTANTIUS AND BEGINNING OF JULIAN'S 

REIGN AS SOLE AUGUSTUS. 1 



360-361. 

Ov rtGortors r/vt-djur/v ditoycrEivai Koovdravnov , judXXov 
8k aitrjv^difJLTqv . Ti ovv rjXQov ; £Tt£i8r) juoi oi Qsoi 8iappr/8r/v 
EKsXsvdav 6G0Trjpia.vfJ.kv E7tayyEXX6jnEvoi 7t£iQojj.evap fiivovri 
8s o jur/dsiS Qegqv 7toirj6£i£v. 

Julian's Letter XIII. (to his uncle, Julianus). 

" By my prescience, 
I find my zenith doth depend upon 
A most auspicious star, whose influence 
If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes 
Will ever after droop." — Tempest, L, 2. 

I HEN we read the narrative of the 
exciting events in Paris described 
in the last chapter, the elevation of 
a successful general to the supreme 
Imperial authority by the uncon- 
stitutional and unauthorized conduct 
of a scarcely national army, and the 
acceptance of that authority by the man of the 
10 145 




1 46 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

soldiers' choice, as of a vocation direct from heaven, 
we are prepared to pass at once to the story of a 
disastrous civil war. And, in fact, if Julian had 
marched eastward or Constantius westward in the 
spring of 360 A.D., backed as each was by an ex- 
perienced, brave, and devoted army, hostilities must 
have ensued of a most destructive and demoralising 
character to the whole Empire. It is, perhaps, to 
the credit of both rivals, though partly owing also 
to propitious circumstances, that this was not the 
case. Neither was animated by a feeling of good- 
will or a conciliatory disposition towards the other. 
Neither can have hoped for a successful issue to the 
negotiations that had been set on foot. But both 
had enough of the spirit of military rulers to prefer 
not to leave undone the tasks still in hand, nor to 
risk, in a struggle of personal rivalry, the safety and 
resources of the great empire which was the stake 
for which both were contending. Both wanted to 
gain time. Julian had his work to finish in the 
West. Constantius desired to make a serious begin- 
ning of what he had undertaken in the East. Thus, 
between the elevation of the rival Augustus at Paris 
and the beginning of the internecine war which 
seemed its necessary consequence, we have two 
campaigns, or p^rts of two campaigns, both in Gaul 
and in Asia, in which the Roman armies contended 
against barbarians, not against one another. 

Early in the year 360, before Constantius arrived 
on the scene of war, Sapor crossed the Tigris and 
laid siege to the already memorable town of Sin- 
gara. Like the other sieges of the war, this one 



3611 Events to Death of Constantius. 1 47 

was conducted with much engineering skill and for- 
midable artillery, and sustained with great deter- 
mination. The town was taken by storm, there was 
a general massacre, and the survivors of the gar- 
rison, consisting of two legions and a company of 
cavalry, were captured, led forth with hands bound, 
and sent off to a distant part of the Persian empire. 
The chief part of the Roman forces, however, were 
stationed at a little distance from Nisibis, which 
town Sapor made no attempt to take. Pressing on 
northwards, he laid siege to another important 
frontier port, Bezabda or Phcenice, situated on the 
Tigris near the border of Mesopotamia and Armenia. 
The garrison consisted of three legions, which 
received the assailants with storms of arrows. In 
self-defence, the Persians placed in the front the 
prisoners taken at Singara. After a good deal of 
fighting and an ineffectual attempt at accommoda- 
tion made by the Bishop, the fate of the town was 
decided by the fall of a much battered tower. The 
massacre and pillage which ensued seems to have 
been more extensive than at Singara. The town 
was refortified and strongly garrisoned against any 
Roman attempt at reconquest. Another strong 
place, Virta, an old fortress of Alexander, was 
the next object of attack, but the King's army 
had probably been considerably weakened in the 
course of the other sieges, and he thought best 
to retire. 

Constantius, meanwhile, was trying to obtain 
allies in his projected campaign for the next year. 
He advanced into Cappadocia and secured the 



148 yulian> Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

friendship of Arsaces, King of Armenia, by giving 
him the hand of a noble lady formerly betrothed to 
the Emperor Constans. He then set out in the late 
summer or early autumn, crossed the frontier into 
Armenia, and then struck south to Edessa. In 
September he advanced northwards to Amida, now 
a heap of ruins, and determined to attempt the 
recapture of Bezabda. This important post proved, 
however, no more easy of attack by Romans than 
by Persians. In spite of the use they made of an 
enormous battering-ram, which had previously 
belonged to the Persians, and had been left behind 
at Carrhae, all attempts to storm the walls were 
frustrated by the courage and energy of the defend- 
ers, who made vigorous sorties and set fire to the 
Roman machines. Constantius determined to turn 
the machine into a blockade, but when the rainy 
season came on, the discomfort felt by the besiegers, 
combined perhaps with a superstitious dread of the 
frequently appearing rainbows, led him to abandon 
the attempt for the present, and retreat to Antioch 
for the winter. There he married his third wife, 
Faustina. Before the next campaign he sent rich 
presents to the kings of Armenia and Iberia, whose 
alliance he felt to be of great importance. Another 
measure imperatively required was the despatch of 
some trusty person to take precautions against any 
attempt that Julian might make on the coast of 
Africa. The man chosen for this task was Gauden- 
tius, who had formerly been an Imperial agent 
attached to Julian's establishment in Gaul, and 
who bore him no good-will. Gaudentius accom- 



361] Events to Death of Constantius, 149 

plished what was required of him promptly and 
efficiently. He speedily raised a force of Mauri- 
tanian cavalry, with which he watched the coast, and 
prevented any invasion which might have been 
made from East Gaul or from Sicily. Early in May, 
Constantius left Antioch and marched to Edessa, as 
he had heard that Sapor was again about to cross 
the Tigris. He was, however, in a doubtful state of 
mind. Julian, he heard, had left Gaul and marched 
through Illyria, on his way to Constantinople. It 
would not be safe to weaken the army in the East 
by a very adventurous campaign. Fate seemed gene- 
rally to declare for Constantius when he contended 
with internal foes, against him when he strove 
against foreign potentates. Yet he could hardly 
have left affairs in Asia to go and meet his enemies 
in Europe, if Sapor had taken advantage of his em- 
barrassed position. Why he failed to do so, we can- 
not tell. The hostilities in Mesopotamia lasted but 
a short time, and the Roman officers had special 
directions to run no unnecessary risks. Sapor 
seems to have found the auspices unfavourable, and 
probably also his presence was required elsewhere. 
He retreated, and Constantius feeling able to do the 
like, moved back to Hierapolis, about midway be- 
tween Edessa and Antioch, and there, in a great 
military meeting, he set forth his own deserts, the 
ingratitude and enormity of Julian's conduct, and 
his hope of speedily crushing the insurrection. The 
army expressed its readiness to march against Julian, 
and light troops were sent on ahead to prevent, if 
not too late, the occupation of the pass of Succi 



150 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

which the usurper must cross in his march on Con- 
stantinople. 

Julian meantime had been actively occupied in 
the West. As has been already said, he felt the 
necessity of completing the pacification of Gaul 
before marching against the Emperor. The sum- 
mer campaign of 360 was chiefly occupied with the 
punishment of the Attuarian Franks, who occupied 
the territory about Cleve, and had made incursions 
over the Gallic border. This involved another ex- 
pedition across the Rhine which was entirely success- , 
ful. Having taken many captives, and imposed 
conditions of peace, Julian marched along the fron- 
tier to make sure of all the important posts, and 
passed by Besantio (Besancon, a place vividly des- 
cribed in one of his letters and to judge from its re- 
mains, an important town under the Roman Empire), 
to Vienne, where he stayed for the winter. During 
the winter months, it was necessary for him to ma- 
ture his plans for the future. He soon resolved to 
postpone no longer the assumption of the Imperial 
pomp and dignity, the symbols, in the eyes of the sol- 
diers, of the authority which they had conferred upon 
him, and which the Emperor did not seem inclined 
to recognise. Thus he celebrated the completion 
of the fifth year of his Caesarship in solemn fashion, 
wearing a magnificent diadem. In religious matters 
he seems to have advanced tentatively. In a letter 
written in the course of the next year, 2 he expresses 
his delight that public sacrifices are being offered, 
and that the army is devoted to the ancient cults. 
Yet we are positively told by Ammianus that while 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 151 

at Vienne he went publicly to church and took part 
in the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany. It 
is not impossible that he may have been thinking 
of carrying out an idea of Constantine, and of join- 
ing together men of various religions in a common 
ceremonial. The Feast of the Epiphany was one of 
the very earliest ever observed in the Church, and 
the precise nature of its significance only came to 
be defined much later. In Julian's day it was not 
specially commemorative of the Adoration of the 
Magi. It was generally associated with the baptism 
of Christ, although in some churches it was not distin- 
guished from Christmas, and regarded as part, if 
not the whole, of the Festival of the Nativity. 
This confusion is not found in the Gallic churches, 
but probably existed in those with which Julian was 
acquainted in the East. Now we shall see later on 
that there was another festival occurring just at 
Christmas time which Julian most strongly desired 
to have celebrated with due honours, the " Birth- 
day of the Unconquered Sun." He probably 
thought that to the day set apart " in honor of the 
manifestation on earth of creative and life-giving 
power " he might hereafter give a Mithraic character 
without destroying all the associations that it had 
for the Christians. 

It must have been about this time that Julian lost 
his wife. She probably died in her confinement, 
but, as we have already shown, nothing definite can 
be stated as to the manner of her end. Neither 
politically nor personally had her influence been of 
importance, and her removal seems to have made 



152 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

no change in the plans and prospects of her hus- 
band. Her body was sent to Rome, to be laid beside 
that of her sister Constantina. 

In his anxiety to ascertain the course he should 
pursue, Julian had recourse to the various arts of 
divination. The results seem to have been favour- 
able, and the historians have preserved some rude 
hexameter lines, 3 communicated to Julian in the 
visions of that night, in which a sudden and speedy 
end to Constantius was attached to certain planetary 
conjunctions. 

Meantime, the world must be prepared for the 
coming changes, and partisans must be secured. 
There was hardly anything like a public opinion to 
which Julian could appeal to judge between himself 
and his cousin. If there had been such an opinion, 
he would probably not have treated it with deference. 
But he strongly desired to have on his side the sym- 
pathy and the counsel of those who represented, in his 
eyes, the collective wisdom of the world. It is very 
characteristic of his mental attitude that he issued 
manifestatoes not only to the Senate of Rome (to 
which some kind of address might seem necessary), 
but to the " Senate and People " of the Athenians, 
the Spartans, and the Corinthians. These letters 
were not issued till the next summer, but it seems 
probable that they were prepared during the winter. 
The appeal to the Roman Senate was, as we shall 
see, a lamentable failure. Julian's intercourse with 
Greek and oriental philosophers and with Gaelic 
soldiers had not fitted him to deal with Romans 
who thought themselves statesmen. The very fact 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 153 

that he thought it worth while to appeal to the 
venerable cities of Greece shows how far his mind 
always was from comprehending the distance be- 
tween the present and the past. It can surely not 
have mattered greatly to Julian what the fourth- 
century Spartans thought of his proceedings, and 
the opinion of the commercial city of Corinth, if it 
had any opinion, was not representative of any influ- 
ential society. These two addresses have perished, 
except, perhaps, a fragment of that to Corinth, 4 and 
we can only guess at their substance and character 
by that which survives, the letter to the Athenians. 
We have already seen Julian's extravagant regard 
for that unique city, the brightness of whose ancient 
glories has often blinded the eyes of enthusiastic 
admirers to her later decrepitude. And to Julian 
Athens was not only the great city of the past, she 
was the headquarters of sophists and scholars. It 
was not unnatural that his long pent-up feeling 
should find an outlet in the little autobiographical 
treatise which he wrote to justify himself in the eyes 
of the fellow-citizens of Aristides the Just, and in 
which the rhetorical form does not entirely hide the 
burning passion beneath. We have already had 
several occasions to cite this letter, which is one of 
the most important sources of information about 
Julian's early life and his Gallic campaigns. Not 
that he writes with the idea of drawing .up a com- 
plete autobiography. He only dwells upon those 
points which are likely to secure for him the sym- 
pathy of those to whom he is writing, and the style 
is that of a rhetorical manifesto, not of a sober his- 



154 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

tory. In apology for his usurpation of the Imperial 
authority, he urges the shameful treatment he had 
received from Constantius, the compulsion used by 
the soldiers, and the manifest will of the Gods. He 
expresses his willingness even yet to come to terms 
with Constantius, but he has evidently given up 
hope of a peaceable settlement, and therefore sees 
no reason to be reticent on the expression of his 
feelings both towards his so-called benefactor and 
towards the Gods of Hellas. 

One of the charges brought by Julian against 
Constantius is that of stirring up barbarians to in- 
vade a Roman province. The last enemy with 
whom he had to cope in Gaul was a chief of the 
Allemanni, who was either in communication with 
Constantius, or seeking to secure his own ends by 
trimming between the rivals. We have already seen 
that in the year 354, Constantius forced terms of 
peace on two brother-chiefs, Vadomar and Gundo- 
mad, who dwelt on the borders of Raetia. Gun- 
domad was now dead, and Vadomar, who bore a 
great reputation for cunning, wrote very subservient 
letters to Julian, addressing him not only as Em- 
peror, but as a god. A messenger of his was, how- 
ever, seized, and a despatch to Constantius was taken 
from him, in which the warning was given : " Your 
Caesar is becoming insubordinate." This must have 
been before the great event at Paris. But early in 
361, Julian, at Vienne, received tidings that the 
Allemanni were pillaging the province of Raetia. 
Accordingly he sent the brave Petulantes and Celtae, 
under a certain Libinio, to chastise the barbarians 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 155 

and restore order. The Roman commander, how- 
ever, was taken at unawares, and in an engagement 
fought near Sanctio (probably Seckingen, in the 
Aargau), Libinio was killed and his troops put to 
flight. Julian determined to secure the person of 
the slippery chieftain. For this purpose, he sent 
his trusted and able secretary, Philagrius, on an 
embassy to Vadomar, furnishing him with secret 
instructions which he was not to look at until Vado- 
mar had crossed the Rhine. On finding that this 
was already the case, Philagrius consulted his direc- 
tions, and found that he was ordered to make 
Vadomar his captive. This was accomplished with- 
out difficulty at the conclusion of a social meal. 
Vadomar was conveyed into the presence of Julian, 
who treated him with more clemency and forbearance 
than he seems to have expected, and merely ordered 
his withdrawal to Spain. 6 We afterwards find him 
acting as Dux in Phoenicia. This step was followed 
on Julian's part by another crossing of the Rhine 
(the fifth he had made during his government of 
Gaul), and by a brief campaign which led the bar- 
barians to sue for peace. 

Julian now had leisure to turn his attention east- 
wards. Before he began his march, he made a 
spirited harangue to the soldiers, in which, after 
recapitulating the work of conquest and of settle- 
ment which they had accomplished together, he 
showed them how desirable it was to take possession 
of Illyria, while it was so scantily supplied with 
troops, to advance to the frontier of Dacia, and 
there to await the course of events. Throwing 



156 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

himself on their loyalty and sympathy, he besought 
them to identify their cause with his by taking an 
oath of fidelity. He further requested them to 
respect the property and all the rights of private 
citizens and the safety of the provinces. The speech 
was received with loud applause, and the desired 
oath taken with great fervour. One man, Nebridius, 
the Praetorian Prsefect lately appointed by Con- 
stantius, and approved by Julian, had the courage 
and the loyalty to his old master to refuse it at the 
peril of his life. Julian interposed between him and 
the infuriated soldiers, and while refusing him any 
demonstration of confidence, permitted him to retire 
into Tuscany. 

It would thus seem that many of the very soldiers 
who had remonstrated so loudly against being with- 
drawn from Gaul to serve under Constantius in the 
East, were ready to follow Julian to the ends of the 
world. Yet he must have found it necessary to 
leave a considerable force behind him, and his con- 
tinued care for the Gallic provinces was shown by 
the appointment of his friend Sallust 6 as Prsefect 
over them. Other promotions were made, both in 
the army and in the civil government, to fill the 
places of those whose fidelity was doubtful. Nevitta, 
a Frank, was set over the cavalry, and a certain 
Dagalaif over the guards. It is evident that in spite 
of the reproaches that Julian directed against the 
promotion by Constantius of barbarians to offices of 
trust, he could not escape from the necessity of 
following the same policy himself. 

His forces amounted altogether to about twenty- 



361] Events to Death of Constantius, 157 

three thousand men. Feeling anxious lest this 
small number might appear contemptible, and lest 
they might be surprised on their way, he divided 
them into several detachments, and impressed on 
the leaders of each the necessity of taking abundant 
precautions. Jovius and Jovinus were to lead one 
division through North Italy. Nevitta was to con- 
duct another portion of the army through the Swiss 
passes and the land known as Rhaetia. He seems 
himself, 7 with a band of picked troops, to have 
penetrated northwards through the Black Forest 
to the sources of the Danube, on which he embarked 
as soon as he came to a navigable part of the river. 
The divided forces were to be concentrated near 
Sirmium, which lay, as we have seen, on the Save, 
near its junction with the Danube. This important 
post had been left in the care of Lucillianus, while 
the governments of North Italy and that of Illyria 
were in the hands of Taurus and of Florentius 
respectively, both of whom were consuls for this year 
361. Both these officials fled as Julian's army ap- 
proached. Lucillianus, in Sirmium, was surprised by 
Dagalaif with a chosen band, seized in his bed, and 
brought into Julian's presence. He seemed scared 
out of his wits, but on being allowed to kiss the 
Imperial purple he recovered sufficient voice and 
confidence to volunteer some good advice to the 
adventurous leader who was pressing on so rapidly 
among unknown dangers. Julian replied with a 
smile : " Keep your wise counsels for Constantius ; 
I did not reach the purple to you because I wanted 
your opinion, but to remove your fright." Lucil- 



158 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

lianus was withdrawn and Julian proceeded to the 
city, where he was received with much enthusiasm. 
The next day he rewarded the good-will of the 
people by delighting their eyes with a chariot race. 
Immediately afterwards, he proceeded to occupy 
the important pass of Succi, between the mountain 
chains of Rhodope and Hsemus. Leaving it under 
the care of Nevitta, he retreated for a time to Nais- 
sus, in Upper Dardania. 

Hitherto, his progress had been continuous and 
easy. But now unexpected dangers arose in two 
different quarters. We have already mentioned the 
letter which he addressed to the Senate of Rome. 
Though it has not been preserved, it seems to have 
contained a justification of Julian and an arraign- 
ment of Constantius of much the same kind as are 
found in the Letter to the Athenians. We can 
imagine that it was couched in flattering terms and 
was bristling with rhetorical illusions, and that the 
old Roman hatred of tyrants was appealed to as in 
the other document the Athenian love of fairness. 
But there yet remained more ballast in the Roman 
Senate than in the so-called " Boule and Demos " 
of the Athenians. The recent visit of the Emperor 
had probably increased his popularity, and the ex- 
penditure which Ammianus blamed as lavish had 
thus, after all, achieved some result. The Praefect, 
Tertullus, read the letter to the senators, who indig- 
nantly uttered in one breath the laconic reply : " We 
require you to respect your superior." Two senators, 
Symmachus and Maximus, were deputed to go to 
the Court of Constantius. At Naissus they were 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 159 

intercepted 8 and well received by Julian, who made 
Maximus Praefect of Rome in the place of Tertullus. 
We may regret that he did not see his way to con- 
tinue in office so bold an opponent as Tertullus, but 
the appointment of Maximus, said to have been 
dictated by private motives, is partly justified by 
results, seeing that he was able successfully to cope 
with a serious famine that threatened Rome. 

Far more dangerous, however, was the action of 
two legions of soldiers who had been quartered in 
Sirmium, when he acquired that city. Strangely 
unmindful of his late experience with the Gallic 
army, or perhaps acting on an exaggerated impres- 
sion of his own powers over soldiers that had not, 
like the Gallic legions, shared his fortunes for better 
and worse, he ordered the troops from Sirmium to 
march westward into Gaul. But the terror of the 
German enemy and of the chilly and unknown west- 
ern lands was as formidable to these eastern troops 
as was the dread of the dry desert and of Asiatic 
siege-warfare to the Petulantes and the Celtae. To 
complete the turning of the tables, the ringleader in 
the military agitation, Nigrinus, was a native of 
Mesopotamia. The determination to resist was, 
however, kept secret till the legions reached Aqui- 
leia, at the head of the Adriatic Gulf. They then 
swooped upon the city, the inhabitants of which 
were favourable to Constantius, and summoned all 
the disaffected in Italy to join them. Julian felt his 
position to be critical, especially as he had heard 
that forces were being raised against him in Thrace. 
Jovinus, with the portion of the army that had taken 



1 60 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

the most southerly route, was ordered to go to 
Aquileia, and if possible to bring the rebels to reason 
without resorting to force. His efforts at negotiation, 
however, proved futile, and the siege began in ear- 
nest. The assailants, finding a difficulty in bringing 
their machines against the walls, stationed in the 
river and bound firmly together three vessels on 
which towers could be raised, so as to give a vantage 
ground for the hurling of missiles. The defenders, 
however, succeeded in firing the towers, and in other 
ways inflicted great loss on the besiegers. How the 
affair would have ended, apart from startling news 
that arrived from the East, it is useless to conjecture. 
This news was of no less an event than the sudden 
death of the Emperor Constantius. He had already, 
as we have seen, determined to march against Julian, 
and in the autumn of 361 he left Antioch and travelled 
through Cilicia. But his health seems to have been 
weakened by the anxiety and fatigue he had lately 
undergone, and at Tarsus he was attacked by a fever, 
such as, in the very same spot, had well-nigh cut short 
the career of Alexander the Great. At first he 
hoped to drive away the malady by exercise, or per- 
haps rather by removal from an unhealthy region, 
and proceeded on his way, but when he arrived at 
Mopsucrene, not far to the north of Tarsus, he was 
forced to make a final halt. Feeling the approach 
of death to be near, he had recourse, as his father 
had before him, to a death-bed baptism. The rite 
was performed by Euzoius, the Arian bishop of An- 
tioch. According to one report he left directions 
that Julian should be appointed his successor. His 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 1 6 1 

young wife gave birth, shortly after his death, to a 
little girl, who was in course of time married to the 
Emperor Gratian. 

Though the death of Constantius occurred at a 
most opportune moment for his far more interesting 
kinsman, and perhaps also for his own reputation, it 
is natural to feel a passing regret at the sad and dis- 
tressing circumstances in which the last male de- 
scendant of the great Constantine ended his days. 
Constantius was not by any means a great man, nor 
yet a man whom we greatly esteem, yet he seems to 
have acted under a sense of duty in his military and 
civil government, and even in his unfortunate eccle- 
siastical policy. Cool and self-controlled in his 
demeanour and chary with his favours, he could not 
stir much enthusiasm, though it is evident that there 
was a strong feeling in his favour both in Italy and 
in the army of the East. His good intentions were 
foiled by the want of an independent mind resolved 
to see things for itself and not only through the 
eyes of overbearing and interested persons, while 
his natural inclination to justice and forbearance 
was entirely counteracted by the vice, so constantly 
besetting the despotic ruler, of jealousy and suspi- 
cion. And his whole reign, with its record of foreign 
wars and civil rebellions, of failure and exhaustion, 
forms a dark setting to a somewhat pitiable per- 
sonality. His efforts to alleviate the financial dis- 
tress of the Empire riveted yet more closely the 
bands which attached the mechanic to his art and 
the peasant to the soil. His attempt to restore 
unity in the Church had borne, as we shall see, no 

IT 



1 62 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, [360- 

better fruit than had his military expeditions against 
the Persians. "Such as he was, he was," wrote 
Julian, " may the earth lie lightly on him." 

Some of the courtiers who had devoured the 
Imperial resources under Constantius, especially 
the infamous chamberlain Eusebius, saw their only 
hope of safety in the project of setting up another 
rival candidate to Julian. But no such scheme 
could be set on foot, and two military legates, who 
bore the barbarous names of Theolaif and Aliguld, 
were sent to inform Julian of what had happened 
and to recognise him as Emperor. Meantime, the 
corpse was conveyed to Constantinople in a funeral 
car, on which was seated the " Protector Domes- 
ticus," Jovianus, who from his somewhat ghastly 
elevation celebrated games and received gifts in the 
towns through which he passed. In later times, 
this circumstance was regarded as a prognostic of the 
high dignity to which Jovian was destined to rise, 
and the brief period during which he was to hold it. 

Julian was still in Dacia when the messengers 
came. We have already seen that certain omens 
had made him inclined to hope for a speedy issue to 
the conflict. Another which is recorded at this 
time is like many which illustrate the skill of a ready- 
minded leader in giving an encouraging interpretation 
to little accidents. When he had one day mounted 
on horseback, the soldier who had assisted him fell 
to the ground. " He who helped me up is fallen 
himself," said Julian. Whether expected or not, the 
news was accepted thankfully, as delivering him 
from the necessity of further bloodshed, yet without 




A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO DIGNITARIES. BELOW, CAPTIVES. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



361] Eve7tts to Death of Constanttus. 163 

any unseemly exultation. He speedily marched 
through the pass of Succi to Philippopolis and 
thence to Constantinople. His easy and triumphant 
march made his pagan friends think of the progress 
of Triptolemus. He entered Constantinople on the 
nth of December, and was received by senators 
and people with great demonstrations of delight. 
When the corpse of the Emperor arrived, he received 
it with all honour and acted as chief mourner in the 
funeral ceremonies. It seems probable that he was 
then present at Christian rites for the last time. 

The peaceable acquisition of Constantinople led, 
as might have been expected, to the surrender of 
Aquileia. The besieged legions were not easily 
convinced of the genuineness of the message sent to 
them, but as soon as they were satisfied on that 
point, they gave themselves up. The ringleaders 
were punished with that refinement of cruelty which 
marks the executions of this period. The bulk of 
the men were allowed to depart unhurt. 

Julian had now three great tasks to accomplish 
before he could think of an eastern campaign or of 
any but the most pressing affairs of the Empire. 
The first was to visit with condign punishment the 
detested ministers of the late Emperor. The second 
was to purge the palace and the whole city of the 
miserable hangers-on that sucked the blood of the 
provinces and infested the palace and the government 
orifices. The third was to establish on a sure basis 
those religious changes which he had long contem- 
plated. We must postpone these latter changes till we 
can interpret them in the light of Julian's religious 



164 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

system and ideals. The first measure that he under- 
took seems to have been executed more summarily 
than was desirable or necessary. A special com- 
mission of six, at the head of which was the new and 
worthy Praefect of the East, Secundus Sallustius(not 
to be confounded with the other Sallust, Julian's 
friend in Gaul, 9 ) held sessions at Chalcedon, on the 
Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, to hear charges and 
pass sentence against several notable officials of 
Constantius. Some were undoubtedly deserving 
of the hard fate that was measured out to them. 
Paul " the Chain " and Apodemus the Sycophant 
perished by the hideous death, which seems to have 
been a not uncommon sentence, of burning alive. The 
chamberlain Eusebius also suffered death, and there 
were numerous sentences of banishment. The dig- 
nity of ancient Rome was offended by the banish- 
ment of the fugitive Taurus in the very year of his 
consulship. The other consul, Florentius, had hidden 
himself, and did not reappear during Julian's reign. 
The hardest sentence was that pronounced against 
the finance minister Ursulus, who, it was said, ought 
to have been an object of Julian's gratitude, since he 
had secured supplies to him in Gaul. But Ursulus 
had incurred the anger of the soldiery by some 
scathing remarks about the loss of Amida, and 
several officers of the army took part in the pro- 
ceedings at Chalcedon. When Julian heard that he 
had been put to death, he declared that the sentence 
had been carried out in consequence of military 
demands and without his own knowledge. The 
strangest part of the affair is that the moving spirit 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 165 

of the commission was the miserable Arbetio, who 
had been mixed up with many of the least creditable 
proceedings of the late reign. The most plausible 
hypothesis is that Julian allowed Arbetio to sit on 
the tribunal for the sake of fair play, and as repre- 
senting different factions and interests from those 
of the other judges, and that he trusted to the re- 
spected Sallustius to maintain order and justice, but 
that Sallustius, being a very old man, was not 
equal to coping with Arbetio. In a letter written 
at this time, 9 Julian vehemently denies (what some 
one must have asserted) his intention of visiting the 
crimes of these men too harshly. The many-headed 
hydra, he says, must be dealt with, and where there 
are charges, judges must be appointed to hear them. 
The difference between his spirit in administering 
justice and that of Constantius was shown in his 
indignant refusal of an offer made to reveal the 
lurking-place of Florentius. After all, the cases of 
capital punishment inflicted were few, and probably 
almost all were very richly deserved. 10 

A like indifference to vested interests and public 
opinion was shown in Julian's palace reforms. A 
sudden reduction of the numbers of those directly 
and indirectly nourished at the public expense, 
must, however just and expedient, inflict some losses 
on innocent people and lead to charges of oppression 
and favouritism. Doubtless the fact that many of 
these schemers and idlers bore the reputation of 
having waxed wealthy on the spoils of temples com- 
bined with Julian's hatred of government by espion- 
age in leading him ruthlessly to thin their ranks. 



1 66 yuliariy Philosopher and Emperor. [360- 

Long accustomed to plain living, and combining a 
philosophic with a military aversion to luxury, he 
had little tolerance for the costly paraphernalia of 
Court life. When he sent one day for a barber, and 
a pompous individual in costly clothing entered his 
apartment, he exclaimed in feigned surprise : " I sent 
for a barber not for a finance minister." Nor did 
the "artist" rise in his esteem by admitting that he 
expected as remuneration twenty rations of food per 
day with the like for his horses, an annual salary, 
and various extras. Julian's disgust at all which 
savoured of pomp and effeminacy dictated a policy 
not unlike that which a cold-blooded economy would 
have recommended. 

But if Julian wished to economise in the salaries of 
personal servants and of useless dependents, he was 
only too demonstrative and lavish in favours he con- 
ferred on his philosophic friends. He eagerly in- 
vited several of his former teachers or fellow-students 
to come to him, and allowed them free passage by 
the public conveyances. One of them was his revered 
master, Maximus of Ephesus." He arrived while 
Julian was presiding at a meeting of the Senate, and 
the Emperor seemed to some critics oblivious of his 
Imperial dignity, as he rushed out to meet the old 
man and bring him into the illustrious assembly. 
The sophist Chrysanthius had been summoned at 
the same time, but he, finding omens adverse, had 
declined the invitation. No omens were sufficient 
to deter Maximus, who persisted in his enquiries till 
the gods gave the desired answer. Priscus likewise 
came from Greece, and Himerius followed in about 




A CONSUL, BETWEEN TWO DIGNITARIES. BELOW, CAPTIVES. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



361] Events to Death of Constantius. 1 67 

a year's time. Among those promoted to high 
offices, we find several whose literary tastes and pro- 
fession had recommended them to the Emperor. 
Thus the rhetorician Mamertinus was one of the 
consuls for the year 362. 

During his stay in Constantinople, Julian did much 
to increase the dignity and beauty of the city, which 
he regarded with much affection as his native place. 
He increased the powers of the Senate, enlarged the 
port, and built and furnished a library. The defence 
of the Thracian provinces and the reorganisation of 
the army also occupied his attention. He celebrated 
the inauguration of the consuls with due solemnity, 
and having performed an act of manumission which 
properly belonged to the new consuls, acknowledged 
his error by paying the judicial fine. He received 
embassies from many remote peoples, from Armenia, 
Mauritania, and far-off India. But no part of his 
work was in his own eyes and that of his sophist 
friends so important as the restoration of the ancient 
worships, and the remodelling of the religious sys- 
tem in accordance with the ideas of which we have 
now to take a brief survey. 

(For designs of coins selected as illustrations for this chapter, seepage 262.) 



1 68 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

NOTES ON CHAPTER VII. 

1 The chief authority for this chapter is Ammianus, books xxi., 
xxii. Zosimus gives a few additional particulars (bk. iii.), but is 
slight and brief ; Libanius {Epitaph.) agrees in the main, but is, as 
usual, rhetorical and indefinite. 

2 Letter 38. 

3 Ammianus gives them as follows, and there is hardly any differ- 
ence in the version of Zosimus : 

Zev$ vrav sis itXarv repju.cc jj,6Xy kXvtov vdpoxooio, 
IIccpQEviKrjS Se KpovoS fioipiQ fia.ivq kiti 7tEjU7tT7j 
EiKodry, fiadiXevS Kcav6rdvrio'-, 'Adid oS ai'rjZ 
Ts'pjucc qjiXov fiiorov 6rvyepdv Hal eitoodwov e%ei. 

4 Given in Hertlein, Fragment. 

5 There is perhaps here a discrepancy between Ammianus and 
Libanius. 

6 For the two Sallustii, see Tillemont, Notes sur Julien, v. 

7 This seems to be the usual interpretation given to the statements 
of Ammianus, which are not perfectly clear. 

8 Or possibly they passed through Illyria on their return journey. 

9 Letter 23. Hermogenes is not mentioned by Ammianus as a 
member of the commission, and I see no ground in the Letter for 
regarding him as such. 

10 For stringent measures to secure the wealth of the proscribed, 
see Cod. Theod. y ix., tit. 42. 

11 According to Eunapius, Maximus had already visited him in 
Gaul, and Julian seems to have hoped to meet him there. See 
Letter 38. 





Coin of Julian and Helena : Heads of Serapis and 

Isis. Reverse, vota publica : Isis and 

Nepthys, face to face. 




Coin of Rhodes. 
Head of Helios. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JULIAN'S RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY. 1 

Ei/il rov Ba6iXiaoi ditadoS 'HXiov. 

Julian, Or. iv., 130. 

"£167tsp yap aXrjQeia juia, ovroa 8e nal <pi\.otiocpia /xia, 
Bavjua6r6v 8e ovSev, si nar aWa$ ual a\\a<Z odovS kit 
avrrjv TtopevojueQa. 

Orat. vi., 184. 

" We needs must love the highest when we see it." 

Tennyson. 



j|N a letter which Julian wrote to the 
philosopher Maximus, 2 most likely 
during the latter part of the year 
361, from which we have already 
had occasion to quote, he expressed 
his gratitude to the Gods that his 
success in the office which he had 
unwillingly accepted had hitherto been free from 
bloodshed or spoliation, and that he was now able 

169 




i 70 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

to sacrifice publicly hecatombs of oxen, his army 
entering sympathetically into his religious changes. 
He also stated his purpose of resolutely carry- 
ing out the work from which he had reason to ex- 
pect good results. The attitude of mind shown 
in this letter, and very frequently throughout his 
writings, is one which cannot be apprehended 
without difficulty, yet it is that which chiefly at- 
tracts the student of human nature to the career 
of the reactionary theosophic emperor. There is 
sufficient paradox about that mental attitude and 
that career to have tempted historians of all ages to 
try to solve the problems they offer. How was it, 
it has been asked, that a man whose moral standard 
was, to say the least, higher than that of his contem- 
poraries, had no respect for the morals of the Ser- 
mon on the Mount ? How could the follower of a 
highly spiritualised theology and cosmology prefer 
in religious worship the sacrifice of hecatombs of 
oxen, Which some of the Neo-Pythagoreans already 
felt to be brutal and disgusting, 2 to the prayers and 
praises offered in the Christian assemblies? How 
could a reformer, painfully aware of the religious 
and moral degradation of his own times, be so blind 
as he was to the real character of the only forces by 
which a healthier society could be erected ? We 
may set aside the justification he has received at the 
hands of some strongly anti-Christian writers, 
especially of some "philosophers" of the last cen- 
tury, whose patronage has probably been worse for 
his reputation than the invectives of his foes. To 
those in any degree familiar with the high-flown and 



yulian's Religion and Philosophy. 171 

imaginative strain of his religious musings and with 
the violence of all his attractions and repulsions in 
regard to persons and things of religious character, 
the idea that even the force of a common hatred 
could induce the rationalist opponents of supersti- 
tion to claim him as an adherent is almost ludicrous. 
Modern friends of Julian's fame are perhaps likely 
to err in another direction and to minimise that ab- 
horrence of Christianity which, it cannot be denied, 
was one of the ruling passions of his life. It has 
been suggested that his earliest ideas of Christianity 
were of a religion in the name and the strength of 
which his Imperial relatives had persecuted his near- 
est and dearest, and had murdered the chief mem- 
bers of his house. Again, it is said that Christianity 
was always presented to him in an uninteresting and 
unattractive manner, and some, as we have seen, 
have laid on the Arian bishops of the Court the bur- 
den of his apostasy. None of these reasons is with- 
out some weight, yet none of them goes to the root of 
the matter. We have seen that the poems of Homer, 
in which Julian from childhood took such keen 
delight, were presented to him by Mardonius in as 
unattractive a guise as were ever the narratives of 
Bible story to children of strict Puritans. He showed 
himself quick enough, when dealing with the apathy 
or with the crimes of those who shared his views, to 
distinguish between the logical and the practical 
results of religious beliefs and between the offices and 
the persons of religious authorities. Again, in his 
polemics against Christianity, he boldly attacked the 
Christian Scriptures, not any imperfect or mislead- 



172 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

ing interpretation of them. With those Scriptures 
he was well acquainted, and he had at least as good 
facilities as most men of his generation for separa- 
ting the grain from the chaff, a process he was well 
able to perform with regard to all systems save the 
Christian. If he had been a mere visionary, without 
any practical acquaintance with men and with life, 
his enthusiasm for an effete system might have been 
less surprising. But, as we have seen, the perils, 
vicissitudes, and responsibilities of his early life had 
developed in him a high degree of mental energy 
and promptness in thought and action. Then again 
his views of life and duty seem in some respects 
much more like those which have grown up under 
Christian teaching than like those of the joyous, life- 
loving paganism of the best days of Greece. Yet 
nowhere is he more bitter in his denunciations of 
Christian depravity than where he is exhorting to 
what we are accustomed to regard as peculiarly 
Christian virtues. 

In fact we can only approach the question with 
any hope of success if, without any thought of accu- 
sation or of apology, we study his beliefs, first on 
their positive and afterwards on their negative side. 
The great problem is not so much why he was not a 
Christian as what made him such an ardent Hellene. 
For it was the ideas of Hellenic mythology and 
philosophy which so entirely possessed his mind as to 
make the reception, or even any faint comprehension 
of the Christian ideal a total impossibility to him. 
While he was yet in his student days, his young and 
enthusiastic mind, saturated with Greek culture, mov- 



Julians Religion and Philosophy. 173 

ing in a world peopled with the imaginations of Greek 
poets and illumined by the splendid speculations of 
Greek philosophers, felt a bitter scorn and indigna- 
tion in seeing this culture and this world receding 
before the inflowing tide of new principles totally 
foreign to his whole view of life. For whatever may 
have been the case with less ardent souls or with 
more quiet minds, with him, at least, no compromise 
between Christianity and Hellenic culture was in 
any degree possible. It is interesting to observe 
the inconsistency in the feelings expressed at dif- 
ferent times by the more cultivated of the Fathers 
of the Church as to the value of the old records of 
pagan wisdom and the character of the philosophers 
and poets of ancient Greece. Gregory Nazian- 
zen, Julian's fellow-student at Athens, denounces 
the greatest names of antiquity with the scurril- 
ity of a fish-wife, yet he is driven to quote the 
writings of those very men in illustration of his mean- 
ing, and had thought it worth while to undergo a 
costly training in order to familiarise himself with 
their methods of thought and speech. Nobler and 
gentler spirits like Origen show r ed some respect for 
the philosophers, and would derive part of their 
wisdom from Palestine, yet even they scorned the 
tragic writers and regarded the Olympic deities as 
actually existing malicious demons. Augustine, with 
all his contempt for secular learning, expressed a 
hope that the great men of old might have been the 
" spirits in prison " to whom the Gospel was preached. 
One is almost driven to relinquish any attempt to 
discover the mind of the early Church on the subject, 



i 74 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

and to fall back on the hypothesis that in so rhetori- 
cal an age, the alternate invectives and laudations 
represent not so much the conflicting views of a 
divided society or the varying moods and phases of 
individual minds, as different fashions of speech, cor- 
responding to the various methods according to 
which subjects of this kind had to be handled. Now 
Julian was himself something of a rhetorician, else 
he could not have been a fourth-century Hellene. 
But at the same time he was imbued with a whole- 
hearted loyalty to the great men of the past and to 
the teachings and the mode of life that had come 
down from them. The heathen writings which his 
Christian contemporaries regarded as a dangerous 
though necessary article of diet, only to be taken 
with copious antidotes, were to him the staff of life 
and the medicine of the soul. He could not divide 
his allegiance. With all his short-sightedness, he 
perceived some things that were hidden from most 
men of his time. In the triumph of Christianity he 
foresaw the Dark Ages. We cannot wonder that he 
did not see the Renaissance on the other side. 

But apart from his attitude toward Christianity, 
there is yet another paradox in the position taken 
up by Julian as to the beliefs of his day. His reli- 
gion was Hellenism ; he aspired to be a Greek of the 
Greeks. Yet both in his religious philosophy and in 
the religious cults which he chiefly preferred, there 
is a very strong admixture of Oriental thought and 
feeling, and the philosopher whom he most deeply 
reveres, Jamblichus, 3 of Chalcis, was more than half 
a Syrian. But we must remember that for centuries 



yulzans Religion and Philosophy. 175 

the process had been going on by which Oriental 
elements were being assimilated into the substance 
of Greek thought. The Egyptian Alexandria had 
been the great meeting-place of eastern and western 
ideas. At one time it may have seemed as if the 
Greek mind would perish under the weight of a more 
ancient civilisation, as it had in its turn overborne 
and diverted the current of culture in Italian lands. 
But in the Neo-Platonists of Alexandria the Hellenic 
intellect asserted its supremacy and its powers of 
receiving and recasting things new and old. 

If, however, we desire to leave generalities and to 
endeavour to attain some knowledge as to what 
Julian's religion actually was, we must study his own 
obscure and hastily written but pregnant little 
treatises on King Helios, and on The Mother of 
the Gods, especially that on the deity to whom he had 
peculiarly devoted himself. The religion of Julian in 
his public capacity was Romano — Hellenism. In his 
private observances and dominant thoughts he was a 
follower of Mithraicism, or the philosophy of Solar 
Monotheism. The origin and character of this strange 
system need some preliminary explanation before 
we see how it was developed in Julian's hands. 

The worship of Mithras was, according to Plutarch, 4 
introduced into the Roman world by the Cilician 
pirates, who were put down by Pompeius Magnus in 
the year 70 B.C. Before that date, Mithraicism had 
already passed through many phases. In the simple 
nature-worship of the early Aryans, Mithras held a 
high place as one of the gods of light and of benefi- 
cence. The stern dualism of the Mazdean religion 



i 76 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

of the early Persians reduced him to a subordinate 
station. For them, Ormuzd, the creative god of light 
and of good, constantly thwarted by Ahriman, the 
power of darkness and of evil, was separated by a vast 
interval from the nearest members of the celestial 
hierarchy. But not even among these, the six Amesha 
Spentas, did Mithras find a place. He was merely 
a Yazata, a personification of the natural phenomenon 
of solar light. But the inherent tendency to poly- 
theistic nature-worships which seems to characterise 
a certain phase of social and intellectual develop- 
ment, soon undermined the simplicity of the Mazdean 
religious system. The early Persian kings ascribe 
generally their strength and their success to Ormuzd. 
From the first part of the fourth century B.C., to the 
reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Mithras holds a place 
of almost equal honour. Ormuzd might still be re- 
garded as superior Creator, but Mithras ranked as the 
strongest and the holiest of divine creatures. His 
qualities of purity and of ubiquity made him the 
special protector of honest men and guarantor of 
oaths. Later on, he becomes identified with deities 
of more distinctly solar character, who had their seats 
in Phrygia, notably with Atys and Sabazius. Both 
of these deities were closely associated in their 
honours with Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. Ac- 
cording to legend, Atys had been beloved by her, 
had proved unfaithful, had suffered mutilation and 
death, had been transformed into a pine-tree, and 
had finally risen, purified, to a new life. All this 
story was commemorated in the Mysteries of Cybele 
and Atys, with hideous orgies, which the symbolic 



yuliaris Religion and Philosophy. i yy 

interpretation of the learned might justify, but could 
never render generally instructive and wholesome. 
In monumental art, the attributes of Mithras and of 
Atys are hardly to be distinguished. Sabazius, too. 
though possibly in his origin a lunar deity, loses his 
distinctness, and becomes another form of Atys and 
of Mithras. The connection between Mithras and 
the goddesses of fecundity worshipped in Phrygia 
and in Babylon is shown again in the curious confu- 
sion made by Herodotus, who identifies the Persian 
Mithras with the Assyrian Mylitta, a goddess closely 
analogous to Cybele. But while to the Semitic or 
partly Semitic races that bowed under the Persian 
yoke this process of syncretism emphasised the 
naturalistic side of the early Aryan deity, a somewhat 
similar process was, in the Persian theology, bringing 
into prominence the more spiritual attributes of his 
character. In the Mazdean system, one of the Ame- 
sha Spentas 5 called £aoshyant, was regarded as the 
redeemer from death, and the giver of immortality. 
This being likewise seems to have become identified 
with Mithras, as indeed it is in accordance with the 
instinct of man all over the world to associate in 
thought the loss of light and life during the winter 
and their recovery in the spring with the death of 
the body and the hope of a resurrection. 6 Thus 
when the Romans first became acquainted with the 
Mithraic cult, it had already acquired those charac- 
teristics which rendered its appeal to the religious 
consciousness of Imperial times so forcible and 
effective. 

With the spread of Roman military power all over 



1 78 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

the known world and with the gradual assimilation 
by Roman society of all the elements that it could 
contain of Greek culture, there set in a current of re- 
ligious thought and sentiment, which is easily traced 
and accounted for, among the uneducated towards 
sensationalism, among the educated towards mono- 
theism, among all towards mysticism. That cosmo- 
politan spirit, which had resulted from the conquests 
of Alexander and which was among the chief gifts of 
Greece to Rome, had so far broken down national 
barriers that national religions had well-nigh lost 
their raison d'etre. Religious observances had come 
to be regarded rather as a means of satisfying the 
aspirations of the individual than as a compliance 
with the requirements of the State. The highly ar- 
tificial character of the society in which men and 
women of the upper classes lived, the equally artifi- 
cial and generally precarious life of the lower classes 
in overcrowded cities, were favourable to the growth 
of self-consciousness and of a morbid desire for nov- 
elty. A reaction had set in against the incredulity 
we see in the companions of Caesar and of Cicero, and 
the once widely prevalent scepticism seemed to have 
paved the way for a similarly prevalent superstition. 
A wider knowledge of nature and of man had led 
nobler minds up to the wide and comprehensive 
doctrine set forth in the Hymn to Zens of the Stoic 
Cleanthes. For Stoicism, based as it was on the idea 
of universal law in nature and of ever-binding duty 
among men, was the only form of Greek philosophy 
that the narrow, legal mind of the Roman could 
adequately grasp. The later Mithraicism appealed 



Julians Religion and Philosophy. 1 79 

both to the better and to the worse sides of the re- 
ligious consciousness of the times. It satisfied the 
desire for universality," for it was confined to no one 
nation and to neither sex. It gratified also the long- 
ing for mystery and for obscure symbolism. It set 
forth, when expounded by the worthiest of its pro- 
fessors, the all-importance of moral purity. It sup- 
plied exciting and extravagant ceremonies to the 
morbid imagination of the weak-minded. It had, 
in its further development, acquired that strong hi- 
erarchical organisation which has enabled some reli- 
gious societies to hold their own through all vicissi- 
tudes of fortune. It seemed to point back to those 
days of primeval simplicity so dear to the fancy of a 
decadent civilisation ; for is not the sun one of the 
earliest recipients of religious honours among all peo- 
ples, was not all-seeing Helios appealed to alike by 
the suffering Titan groaning under the tyranny of 
Zeus, by the heroes swearing solemn oaths under the 
walls of Troy, and by Greeks and Romans of later 
times when undertaking obligations under the most 
sacred, that is, under the most primitive sanctions? 
And when once the cult of Helios had gained a foot- 
ing in the Roman Empire, the frequent transfers of 
the legions were sure to spread it over all the length 
and breadth of the known world. 

The development of Mithraicism after it had be- 
come one of the principal religions of the Empire 
was still in the direction of comprehensiveness, of 
mystery, and of closer organisation. Mithras became 
more frankly identified with the sun, and altars to 
him often bore the inscriptions Soli invicto. At the 



1 80 jfulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

same time he aggregated to himself the attributes 
of almost all the other deities of the pantheon. He 
was worshipped in subterranean grottos with mystic 
rites, and a whole system of symbolism grew up in 
connection with his worship. The most familar 
form of Mithras in art is. that of a young man, in 
Phrygian cap, stabbing a bull. But many other 
animals besides the bull — the scorpion, the owl, the 
lion, the dog — are regularly found in artistic repre- 
sentations of Mithraic import. The mysteries be- 
came more and more severe in their demands on 
candidates for initiation, more significant in the 
teachings as to immortality and metempsychosis. 
Neophytes were admitted by a bath of blood. The 
tongue was purified by honey. Severe tests were 
applied to those who would join the inner circle of 
worshippers, or would rise from a lower to a higher 
grade in the society. All members, or perhaps all 
who attained to a certain dignity, regarded them- 
selves as soldiers of Mithras, and signified their 
relation to him, in one of their rites, by thrusting 
aside a proffered garland and grasping a sword, 
while uttering the words : " I will have no crown but 
Mithras." The passage of the soul from a lower to 
a higher state of existence was represented in their 
mysteries by a ladder leading from one to another 
of the planetary spheres. 7 A strict discipline was 
enforced among all men and women who joined the 
society. But while the weaker were kept to their 
allegiance by the iron yoke of authority, and the 
superstitious gratified their cravings by the excite- 
ments of a sensational worship, some at least of the 



yuliaris Religion and Philosophy. 1 8 1 

philosophers of the day regarded chiefly the doctrinal 
side of the religion, and adapted it to the expression 
of their highest thoughts on the substance and origin 
of all things, and on the relation of human nature to 
the divine. 

Of this philosophy of sun-worship, Julian is the 
most notable exponent. In those habits of thought 
and feeling which had favoured the growth of solar 
monotheism, he was the child of his age. In his be- 
liefs and philosophic principles he was a disciple 
of Jamblichus of Chalcis in Ccele-Syria, who had 
developed and added to the doctrines of Plotinus 
and Porphyry. In personal character and habits 
of mind he was, as we have seen, swayed by a 
passionate devotion to the traditional wisdom of the 
past, and by the conviction that his great task in life 
was to restore Greek culture and to save the treasures 
of old time from the inroads of barbarism and of 
oriental superstition. And for this mission he nerved 
himself by constantly thinking that he was bound to 
the service, and strengthened by the protection of 
King Helios. In many passages of his work Julian 
shows by apparently voluntary ejaculations or by 
express statements how constantly and habitually he 
regarded himself as the servant of Helios or of 
Mithras, and the idea of his special mission from 
that deity is worked out in the form of a fable in 
one of his Orations against the Cynics. 

Although single-hearted in his Hellenism, Julian 
found most of the purely Greek gods, like Apollo 
and Hermes, too anthropomorphic to satisfy his 
mystic aspirations. Zeus might be identified with 



1 82 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

the supreme unity or with the chief creative force. 
Athene might be regarded as a personification of 
Divine Providence, but most of the other gods of 
the Greek pantheon, though always to be honoured 
and kept in mind, were necessarily relegated to a 
subordinate position. Nor was the spiritual nature 
of Julian's theology, any more than his Hellenism, 
irreconcilable with sun-worship. He always carefully 
distinguishes, especially when he is controverting 
the Mosaic story of creation, 8 and again when he is 
setting forth the nature of King Helios, 9 between 
the visible solar disc and the real supersensual sun. 
The compatibility of Mithraicism with Hellenism, 
with idealism, and with monotheism, can be realised 
only after a careful study of Julian's oration in 
honour of King Helios. But in order to grasp, even 
in slight measure, the meaning and the language of 
that oration, it is necessary to have in our mind some 
notions of the theories of Plotinus and his followers 
as to the divine nature and the divine power and 
attributes. 

Plotinus (who lived from 204 to 269 A.D., and 
studied and taught at Alexandria and later in Rome), 
always considered himself a disciple of Plato, and 
was probably hardly aware of the extent to which he 
modified the teachings of his master and of the dif- 
ference in tone which they acquired through his 
elaborations and interpretations. The splendid Pla- 
tonic myths hardened, in the hands of the Neo- 
Platonists, into systems of dogma, whence weapons 
were often produced for fighting against the doc- 
trines of the Church. The writings of Plato which 



yuliaris Religion and Philosophy. 183 

they chiefly preferred were the most speculative, 
such as the Timcens, and they dwelt most willingly 
on the most obscure elements of his teaching. Thus, 
unlike some followers of Plato, both of ancient and 
modern times, who prefer to fix their eyes on 
human life, set against a mysterious background of 
divine and supersensual existence, and deriving all 
its reality and all its nobleness from communication 
of the divine energy, Plotinus turned his gaze from 
earth to heaven, started from the conception of a 
supreme Unity, identical with the supreme Good, 
descended thence to the realms of pure Reason, of 
Nov5, comprehending within itself the Platonic Ideas, 
the archetypes of all sensible things, and thence 
down to the second emanation, Wvxrj, the animating 
soul of the universe. The chief development which 
the doctrine received, at the hands of Jamblichus, was 
in the first place the removal of To 'Ev one step 
further from all human thought, the supposition of 
a yet more exalted Unity, above that Unity, iden- 
tical with the Good, which was regarded as the 
parent of Novs. Of this development, however, I 
have not met any trace in the writings of Julian. 
The second development in the Plotinic school, im- 
portant in relation to the philosophy of Julian, is the 
separation of Nov? into two noGfioi (orders), the 
rorjro5 and the roepot, the designations of which 
have been not quite adequately translated as 
the intelligible and the intellectual worlds. It 
seemed to the Alexandrian philosophers that any 
act, even the act of thinking, was unworthy of the 
denizens of that highest ideal world, who possessed 



1 84 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

merely passive attributes, who might be contem- 
plated, but who performed no action save the crea- 
tion or the generation of an order of intelligent 
creatures, the rospoi. These beings, according to 
the Neo-Platonic system, on the one hand, are ever 
contemplating the archetypes of the notf/iog vorjros, 
while on the other hand they create, according to 
those archetypes, not directly the physical universe, 
but the psychical, of which the physical is a faint 
copy. Now to give unity to these conceptions of a 
primordial divine existence, a world of archetypes, 
another world of creative agencies, and yet another 
of generative forces among phenomena, some medi- 
ating spirit or agency is required, and this mediation 
Julian finds in the being and functions of King He- 
lios. He is a perfect manifestation of the Divine 
Good, whence he has proceeded. He gives being, 
unity, and beauty to the intelligible or archetypal 
deities (yorftoi). He rules among the intelligent and 
creative, whose power is derived from him. He gives 
form to matter, bestowing at once knowledge and the 
faculty of knowing, just as from the sun in the 
heavens are derived both the faculty of vision and 
the light by which we see. In short, being an 
exact image of the superintellectual Idea of the 
Good, the highest being of the intelligible order 
and the archetype of the great source of light 
and order in the sensible universe, he stands to 
the creative intelligence in the relation held by 
the Idea of the Good to the archetypal principles 
of being and in that of the solar disc to the 
creations of the universe of space. Most of the 



Julians Religion and Philosophy. 185 

gods known to the Greeks and the Egyptians may 
be regarded as special energies or manifestations of 
" Helios, the King of all," though, as Julian sugges- 
tively remarks, in treating of a divine being we 
cannot entirely separate nature from power or from 
functions. It is because of the imperfection of hu- 
man nature that man often wills to be that which he 
is not, and fails to achieve that which he wills. With 
the divine nature it is otherwise : " Whosoever he 
willeth, that he is, that he can, that he doth." Yet 
we who judge of things imperfectly and symbolically 
may divide his power, identifying the creative force 
with Zeus, the harmonising with Apollo, the life- 
giving or healing with Asclepios, the distributive 
with Dionysos, the generative and joy-inspiring with 
Aphrodite, the soul-liberating with Hades or Sarapis. 
Likewise Athene, who has sprung not, according to 
the fable, from the head of Zeus, but from the whole 
nature of Helios, derives from him her functions as 
teacher of arts and of wisdom. By superintending the 
mixtures of the four elements, the gods subordinate to 
Helios create bodies and souls and give good gifts to 
both. From the heavenly motions, men derive their 
knowledge of mensuration and mathematics. From 
the divine orders upheld by King Helios, Greeks and 
Romans have derived their orderly systems of gov- 
ernment and all their civilisation. The Romans 
show their gratitude to Helios by worshipping him 
under the names of Jupiter and Apollo, by rever- 
encing as their founder's mother Aphrodite, who is 
one of his manifested forces, by their care for the 
sacred flame kept up by the Vestal Virgins, by mak- 



1 86 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

ing the beginning of their year coincide with the 
return of the sun from the south, and by keeping 
the festival of Mithras, or Helios, immediately after 
the Saturnalia. 

From this slight sketch of a very obscure and 
difficult treatise may be gleaned some notion of 
Julian's use of Greek mythology and also of the 
stronger and the weaker sides of philosophic sun- 
worship. On the one hand, that worship afforded 
sublime objects of contemplation ; it left the mind 
free to recast the old myths so as to explain away 
any ugliness and make them vehicles of sound in- 
struction, it gave a meaning to life and a hope in 
death. With one element in some of the oriental 
systems Julian had no sympathy, the belief in 
metempsychosis. He abhorred the doctrines of the 
resurrection of the body and of successive rebirths of 
the soul, and regarded it as one of the noblest func- 
tions of Helios to deliver the soul after death from 
all its bodily fetters. And this freedom from the 
body was always associated in Julian's mind with the 
conquest of all low and base desires, such a conquest 
as might in the present life be attained by those who 
endeavour to rise to a state of philosophic calm. 
But here we see the weaker side of this religion. 
Essentially and apart from strained interpretations 
of its rites and customs, it was, if not immoral, 
entirely non-moral in character. Not only was its 
teaching dark and symbolic; — all religions must deal 
largely in symbolism, and any which embraces 
various classes of votaries must, in its symbolic 
teaching, convey different meanings to different 




ASKLEPIOS AND TELESPHOROS. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



yzdians Religion and Philosophy. 187 

types of mind. But in the cult of Mithras or of 
Helios, there was, we may say, no moral substruc- 
ture. What moral meaning it was subsequently 
made to convey was an artificial addition due to 
conscious adaptation by individual thinkers who had 
no claim to represent a common tradition, no influ- 
ence on the life and thought of the common people. 
A religious enthusiast himself, Julian could not per- 
ceive the horrible perversions which must arise 
where religious enthusiasm is not tempered by re- 
spect for the moral law. He felt no fear of familiar- 
ising the people with the loathsome stories perpetu- 
ated in some of the Mysteries, such as those of the 
Great Mother. Nay, it even seemed to him a posi- 
tive advantage that stories about the gods should be 
strange and monstrous in character. Noble and 
dignified representations of divine beings give, he 
said, a lofty but still a purely human conception of 
their character, while these grotesque myths lead 
men to think of the mysterious and supernatural. 
In dealing with the story of Cybele and Atys, both 
of which deities are very closely associated with King 
Helios, he guards against any acceptance of it in a 
literal sense. Since the gods cannot go astray, Atys 
has never fallen, but rightly interpreted the whole 
story may be taken as an allegory of the relations be- 
tween the Supreme Cause and the natural world, of 
the duty of the soul to moderate its excessive desires 
and to rise towards the Gods, while from each stage 
in the ritual celebration, and in each rule of absti- 
nence practised during the ceremonies, may be de- 
rived some valuable rule for the guidance of life. 



1 88 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

In the treatment of this and of some other myths, 
Julian shows an eager desire to make the pagan 
traditions of the Gods a vehicle of moral and reli- 
gious instruction in rivalry to the teachings of 
Christianity. The word used for the descent of Atys 
from the upper world to organise and vivify the 
world of matter (GvynarafiaGis) is the very one 
sometimes used by Christians to describe the incar- 
nation of their Lord. Again, in his exposition of 
the Labours of Heracles, 10 he represents him as a 
divine but suffering and struggling son of man, over- 
coming the resistance of the elements and of all 
human woes, through the aid of Athene Pronoia and 
of his father Zeus, who had brought him forth as a 
deliverer to the world, and received him home with 
thunder and lightnings. Julian goes on to contrast 
Heracles, the hero apotheosised after his human life 
with Dionysus, who has, if the myths are wisely ap- 
prehended, no human side, but is to be identified 
with certain creative powers of the Divine Intelli- 
gence. He refers in another place " to Asclepios as 
a divine messenger from Zeus and Helios, who as- 
sumed a human form, walked on the earth, and 
cured, both during his earthly course and subse- 
quently by special inspiration, the diseases from 
which men suffer in soul and body. 

Thus the habit of meditating upon and of endeav- 
ouring to analyse the Divine Power, manifested in 
nature and in man, made it possible for Julian and 
other Alexandrian philosophers to keep to a polythe- 
istic mythology, while maintaining a monotheistic 
position in their serious belief and in their most 




HYQIEIA AND EROS. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



yulians Religion and Philosophy. 1 89 

cherished religious practices. To Julian, polythe- 
ism implied not merely an analysis of the divine 
attributes. It also supplied a hypothesis for ac- 
counting for different races of men and different 
forms of civilisation. To this point we shall re- 
turn in considering Julian's controversial writings 
against the Christians. Here we may remark the 
unfitness of Mithraicism or any similar system to be- 
come in any sense a universal religion. It needed 
a JHSGITTJ5 as powerful as Helios himself, to bring 
into harmony the minds of the rude soldiers, who 
raised - an altar to the Unconquered Sun, and of the 
fiery fanatic who exhausted himself in the degrading 
rites of Atys and Cybele, with the high aspirations 
of the philosopher, who found in the conception of 
Mithras a consistent and satisfactory account of 
the origin of all things, and in the half-orientalised 
mythology of the late Greek civilisation a source of 
worthy motives which continually urged him for- 
ward in the path of duty. The orgies which had 
disgraced the reign of Elagabalus, that devoted 
priest of a solar deity, might have shown how much 
force the arguments on behalf of moral cleanliness 
drawn from the veneration of the pure sunlight were 
likely to exert on a fundamentally unclean mind. 

It is possible that some survivals of the old Mi- 
thraic worship still linger among us. The pine-tree, 
once sacred to Atys, is in the form of the Christmas 
trees still honoured with joyous rites on the day 
once kept as the " birthday of the Unconquered 
Sun," although the honour paid to both may date 
from far earlier days. Some writers are inclined to 



1 90 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. 

see elsewhere influences of Mithraicism l2 in Chris- 
tian ritual. And whether or no this last effort of 
pagan theosophy had any permanent results on the 
organisation of the Catholic^ Church, it has been 
clearly shown that many Mithraic symbols and 
modes of thought and worship are to be found 
among the heretical bodies, especially the Gnostic 
sects, of the half-Christianised provinces of the East. 
But it is time to turn from this twilight of obscure 
speculations and aspiring dreams, and to observe 
how Julian contended, in words and deeds, against 
those religious teachers whose impiety and barba- 
rism, according to his judgment, forced him into 
action both as a religious controversialist and as a 
sacerdotal reformer. 




Coin of Smyrna. Head of Cybele. 



Notes on Chapter VIII. 19 1 

NOTES ON CHAPTER VIII. 

1 Besides Julian's own writings, especially Orations I V.,V., and VII., 
and the authorities already referred to, among the books which throw 
most light on this subject are Vacherot's Ecole d' Alexandrie (espe- 
cially the chapter entitled ;< Successeurs de Plotine"), Jean Reville's 
La Religion a Konie sous les Sever es, which contains a good account of 
the Mithraic cult, and Maury's Religions de la Grece, vol. iii. ; 
Ueberweg and the other historians of philosophy give, of course, an 
outline of the Neo-Platonic system. Since writing most of the above 
chapter I have read M. Adrien Naville's little treatise on Julian 
V Aposiat et sa Philosophie du Paganisme, which is interesting and 
appreciative, but does not trace the connection between Julian's 
doctrine and that of the other philosophers of his school. This 
would, however, be an almost impossible task, seeing that so much 
of the work of Jamblichus, Porphyry, and the rest is hopelessly lost. 
For this reason, we cannot determine how much of Julian's thought 
is original and how much is directly borrowed from others. But 
where he borrowed, even, as he said he did, from Jamblichus in the 
treatise on Helios, he probably did not merely copy without rearrange- 
ment and adaptation to his special objects. For the influence of 
classical education on the pagan reaction, I would refer to the inter- 
esting work of M. Boissier La Fin dzi Paganistne. 

2 Notably Apollonius of Tyana. See the curious life of this 
oriental mystic by Philostratus. 

3 There can be little doubt that the letters purporting to be from 
Julian to Jamblichus are spurious. See Cumont, Sur V Authenticite de 
quelques Letires de Julian, also Schwarz, De Vita et Scriptis Juliani 
imperatoris. According to one theory, these letters were written 
by Julian to the younger Jamblichus (of Apamea), but their style 
is against this supposition. For the two Jamblichi, see Brucker 
Hist. Phil., vol. ii., pp. 268, 269. In the new collection of letters at- 
tributed to Julian published by Papadopoulos in the Maurogord- 
ateios Bibliotheke, there is one (No. 4) which mentions both uncle 
and nephew, and seems to say that the latter excelled in theosophy 
as the former in philosophy. Probably the works of the two have 
become hopelessly mixed. See pamphlet by F. Cumont just referred 
to, p. 4, note 6. 

4 De Lside et Osiride. Plutarch mentions a way of regarding 
Mithras as mediator between Ormuzd and Ahriman. This idea may 



1 92 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

be brought into harmony with Julian's if we take Ahriman to repre- 
sent waiter and Ormuzd pure spirit. 

5 Or a Yazata? 

6 De Iside et Osiride. 

7 Origen Against Celsus, vi., 22. For Mithraic symbols, see C. W. 
King, Early Gnostic Gems. 

8 Contra Christianos, 65. 

9 Oration iv., 132, etc. 

10 Oration vii., 219 et sea. 

11 Contra Christianos, 200. 
13 Such as C. W. King, 



A further interesting point in Julian's Oration in honour of the 
Mother of the Gods is that the allusion in it to the mystic sacrifice of 
unclean animals (Or. v., 176) has led to, or at least assisted, some 
notable theories on the subject of sacrifices generally. See Robertson 
Smith : Religion of the Semites, Lecture viii.,/. 272. 





Coin of Julian and Helena. Heads of Serapis and Isis. Reverse, vota publica. 
Isis with sistrum and vase. 



CHAPTER IX. 

JULIAN AS A RELIGIOUS REFORMER AND CON- 
TROVERSIALIST. 

Aidov ita6i juev drQpoo7toiS svdaijuovi'ar } ?}S to HeqxxXaiov ?j 
tcoy Qegdv yvcio6iS e6ti, uoivijj 8e rcp^aojuaiGor dyjucp /.idXi6va 
juev aitorpi'ipa6Bai rrjS dQeo'rTfroZ ttjv urj'A.ida. 
Julian, Or. v., 180. (From concluding prayer to the Great Mother.) 

" Great God ! I 'd rather be 
A pagan, suckled in a creed outworn, 
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn ; 
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea ; 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 

Wordsworth. 



E have insisted on the necessity for all 
those who would attain some insight 
into the mind and character of Julian 
to study the positive and constructive 
elements in his religious philosophy 
and governmental policy, before ap- 
proaching the negative and destructive 

work. But in practice, this course is not 
193 




of his 



1 94 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

always easy to pursue. True, we can, as a rule, sep- 
arate his controversial from his didactic or devotional 
treatises, and distinguish the prohibitory from the 
regulative orders which he issued on religious affairs. 
Even here, however, we are not free from apparent 
interpolations and ill-fitting adjustments in the text, 
and from the difficulty of deciding how much, in 
satirical or rhetorical sketches, is meant to be taken 
literally. And on a nearer view, there appears a con- 
servative tendency in what is most destructive, while 
in the defence of the old, so much seems to have 
been borrowed from the new, that the product has 
the effect of a grotesque patchwork. Julian was too 
wise to think that he could by a series of enactments 
make men cease to feel those religious needs which 
they sought to satisfy in the ways he did not favour. 
Nay, he was himself in sympathy with those very 
tendencies towards spirituality in religion and a 
broader humanity in ethics which were both cause 
and effect of the rapid spread of Christian doctrine 
and institutions. Accordingly, he endeavoured con- 
sciously and of set purpose, to engraft on the old 
pagan system all that in the new teaching which 
most powerfully appealed to the better instincts of 
man. No doubt it seemed to him that in so doing 
he was only developing the hidden and neglected 
meaning of the old poets and sages. And certainly 
there is much in Homer, not to mention the more 
didactic writers, which can bear interpretation in a 
rationalist and moralist sense. Even in our days, a 
Christian scholar has found in Helen of Troy some 
features of the Magdalene, and in Apollo and Athene 



yulian as a Religious Reformer. 195 

types of the Divine Word. And without soaring so 
high, we may gather from the Homeric poems both 
examples of heroic virtue and intimations of the ulti- 
mate triumph of the better cause. If such moral in- 
struction is only to be obtained by neglecting other 
phases of Homeric life and thought which would 
tend in a contrary direction, we must remember that 
Julian's eye was less capable than ours of judging 
works in all their relations, and indeed perhaps few 
eyes can judge in an impartial and critical spirit any 
books which it regards as peculiarly sacred. Sim- 
ilarly, no society, and no man deeply imbued with 
the religious ideas of his society, can judge quite 
fairly the character and the tendency of the docu- 
ments and observances of any religion which is re- 
garded as a dangerous rival. To Julian, all the 
professions and even the practice of active philan- 
thropy on the part of Christians savoured of im- 
posture and charlatanry. Nowhere does he show 
less practical sense, yet nowhere does the great aim 
of his life more clearly appear than in his laudable 
efforts to raise the paganism of his day to a moralis- 
ing and spiritually elevating power in the world. His 
aims and methods appear throughout his correspond- 
ence and his various writings, but are most clearly 
set forth in four letters of injunction and exhortation 
to different officials in the hierarchical system. We 
purpose therefore to give here a brief sketch of these 
most interesting documents. 

One of them Ms to a lady named Callixena, who 
seems to have kept staunchly to her functions as a 
priestess of Demeter all through the time of Chris- 



1 96 yuliariy Philosopher and Emperor. 

tian domination. In a style of graceful compliment, 
Julian asserts the superiority of the faithful priest- 
esses to Penelope, whose virtues like theirs bore well 
the test of time. For piety is an even higher virtue 
than conjugal fidelity, and again the trial of the 
priestesses had been twice as long as that of Pe- 
nelope. In recognition of her merit, Callixena is to 
receive, in addition to her previous office, that of 
priestess to the Mother of the Gods at Pessinus. 

More important as elucidating all Julian's ideas 
and plans is a very important fragment 2 addressed 
to some unknown priest in a high and responsible 
position. At the point where the extant portion of 
this letter begins, Julian is in one of those digressions 
common in his longer letters, and in his treatises, 
which has led him astray from his main subject — the 
duties and privileges of the priesthood. He is in- 
veighing against the life of solitary asceticism which 
he holds to be contrary to the social nature of man. 

Returning to his subject, he remarks that as civil 
rulers have to see that the laws of the State are 
obeyed, it belongs to those who have authority over 
priests 3 to cause them to follow the laws of the 
Gods. The first necessary qualification in a priest is 
philanthropy. The Gods love those men who love 
their fellows. Their love is to be shown in divers 
ways, — it may be even in chastisements. In nature 
it is like the love of the Gods to men, which love 
has bestowed all the gifts by which man is superior 
to the beasts, gifts far richer, and less directly be- 
stowed than the " coats of skin," with which, accord- 
ing to the Jewish story, the Creator clothed Adam 



Julian as a Religions Reformer. 197 

and Eve. Men selfishly appropriate these gifts, and 
cause the poor to blaspheme the Gods. They even 
ask for more, and if a shower of gold were to fall, 
they would try to keep it each for himself. Yet 
if they distributed to the poor, they would not 
become losers thereby. Julian bears witness that 
he has never had cause to repent an act of generosity. 
It was just after relieving some poor people from his 
scanty means that he recovered the inheritance of 
his grandmother. We should give more liberally to 
the good, yet relieve even the bad and our personal 
enemies, according to their wants, in virtue of their 
humanity. Prisoners should be treated kindly, es- 
pecially seeing that they are often innocent. The 
names by which the Gods are known should be suf- 
ficient to inculcate this duty. How can a man less 
kindly and hospitable than the Scyths dare to ap- 
proach the temple of Zeus Xenius or of Zeus 
Hetaerius? And how inconsistent it is to worship 
family deities and neglect the fact that all men are 
of one family ! For this truth stands whether all 
men are descended from a single pair or whether, as 
Julian himself believes, men are of divers origins and 
fashioned by many divinities, but inspired by Zeus 
with a common life. 

Starting them from the performance of their duty 
towards their brother men, priests should add to 
their philanthropy piety and purity. The presence 
of the Gods must by them be ever clearly realised. 
The images of the Gods should be reverenced, not 
with idolatrous regard, but as symbols conceded to 
our fleshly nature, one degree removed from those 



198 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

visible manifestations of the Gods which we see in 
the starry heavens. We may not excuse ourselves 
from serving the Gods by saying that they do not 
need our services ; neither do they need our praises, 
which nevertheless we are bound to render, accord- 
ing to immemorial custom. Veneration for the 
images of the Gods is not more idolatrous than is 
the affection of a child for the portraits of his 
parents. One argument used in disparagement of 
such images is that they are perishable. But if they 
were not, they would not be the work of man at all. 
It is sometimes permitted by the Gods that even 
great and good men, those worthier images of God, 
may be destroyed by evil men, although the Gods 
ever watch over the good. But the divine vengeance 
overtakes murderers ultimately, not always immedi- 
ately ; and so it is with profaners of temples and 
images. A proof that even sacred things are subject 
to irretrievable decay is shown in the failure of 
Julian's late attempt (made in all reverence and 
sincerity) to restore the Jewish Temple. For Julian 
reverences the God of the Jews, though he despises 
that race for their want of culture and for their 
indistinct ravings, so different from the poetry of 
the Greeks. 

Everything to do with the divine service should 
be respected, and the persons of the priests held 
in honour, as was that of Chryses by the host of 
Agamemnon. 

Julian now returns to the subject from which, 
with his usual tendency to fly off at a tangent, he had 
wandered, and resumes the consideration of the 



Julian as a Religious Reformer. 199 

duties of priests. He guards, however, against the 
idea that the reverence due to a priest should depend 
on his moral character. So long as he performs his 
functions, he should be respected by virtue of his 
office. If he is an evil-doer, he should be convicted 
and degraded, but while he is a priest at all, those 
who despise him incur the wrath of the Gods, as 
certain oracular verses plainly teach. 

To return then : What should the character of the 
priest be ? The immediate recipient of this letter 
needs no admonitions, but it may be useful for him 
to feel the support of Julian's authority as Pontifex 
Maximus, in his endeavours to maintain discipline 
among his subordinates. Speaking as a priest to 
priests, Julian says that he feels unworthy of his 
office, but he trusts in the Gods, who, even during the 
life of the body, are able to bring order out of dis- 
order, and yet are more certain to fulfil the hopes of 
the soul after death. These hopes should enable 
priests to stand towards the people as sureties on 
their behalf with the Gods, and as examples of 
virtuous living. As was said before, piety, a con- 
stant recognition of the invisible presence of the 
Gods, should be found in every priest. Hexameters 
attributed to Apollo are quoted as showing that 
the eye of the God penetrates both Olympus 
and Tartarus, and rejoices in the good deeds of 
pious men. Surely if the Gods can see through 
stones and rocks, they can see into our souls, which 
they are able to deliver from the realms of the dead. 

This piety involves purity, in thought, word, and 
deed. No coarse jesting, no reading of impure 



200 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

poems, can ever be permitted to those of the priestly 
order. They should study Plato, Zeno, and other 
philosophers who have taught the existence and the 
providence of the Gods. Mythological tales, whether 
of Greek or Hebrew origin, which represent the Gods 
as envying, fighting, or otherwise acting unworthily 
of the divine nature, are to be shunned. Histories 
should be read, but not fictitious love stories. Nor 
may priests read sceptical works like those of Epi- 
curus and Pyrrho, which, however, have (thank 
Heaven !) mostly disappeared. For the guarding of 
the thoughts from evil is even more important than 
that of the tongue. Hymns in honour of the Gods 
should be learned, both such as have been composed 
by the Gods themselves, and such as men have writ- 
ten under their inspiration. Three times, or at 
least twice a day, the priest should pray and offer 
sacrifices. 

As, however, priests are after all men in the flesh, 
the nature of their service must depend partly on 
circumstances. When not on actual duty, the priest 
should purify himself night and morning. He must 
dwell in the temple the prescribed number of days 
(in Rome thirty), and during that time he must give 
himself to meditation, and not go to his own home 
nor to the market-place. After he has given over 
his charge to another, he must still regulate his life 
carefully. He may only frequent the society of 
worthy people. He may occasionally go to the 
market-place, and may hold intercourse with the 
magistrates, and he must administer relief to the 
poor. When officiating, let the priests wear splen- 



yulian as a Religious Reformer, 201 

did vestments, but in private life they should dress 
as ordinary men, and imitate the modesty of Amphi- 
araus, which, as ^Eschylus relates, won the favour of 
the Gods. Common use of priestly garments brings 
them into dishonour. 

Priests should not go to the theatres, though if 
the stage could be purified, the case would be other- 
wise. But such purification, though a noble work, 
seems impracticable. The company of dancers and 
actors is to be avoided, as well as wild-beast combats 
and all spectacles and contests, except those of a dis- 
tinctly sacred character, at which the presence of 
women is prohibited, 8 both on the stage and in the 
audience. 

Passing on to the mode of selecting candidates 
for the priestly office, Julian lays down the principle 
that men should be chosen according to their merit, 
and especially their reputation for piety and active 
benevolence, not for birth or wealth. They should 
be such as guide their own households in ways of 
piety, and are also eager to relieve the poor. It is 
the neglect of the poor by the priesthood that has 
incited the wretched Galilseans to simulate philan- 
thropy, as kidnappers decoy children with sweet- 
meats. In the midst of a bitter invective against 
the Christian love-feasts, the fragment suddenly 
ends. 

It seemed desirable to paraphrase this document 
at some length, in spite of its fragmentary character 
and the many imperfections of the text, because it 
contains several points very characteristic of Julian's 
mode of thought and schemes of action. It is an 



202 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. 

example of the rambling style in which he generally 
wrote, constantly pulling himself up after wide di- 
gressions suggested by a passing thought, especially 
by some allusion to the habits of Jews or of Chris- 
tians. There is a striking approximation to the 
Christian standard of morals, especially in the incul- 
cation of active benevolence and of kindness to ene- 
mies, and in the insistence on purity, in thought, 
word, and deed. Other interesting points are his 
justification of Hellenic paganism from the charge 
of idolatry ; his mention of the attempt (which we 
shall consider later on) to restore the temple at 
Jerusalem ; his separation, in thought, of the person 
from the orifice of priest ; his remarkable anticipa- 
tion, in the part relating to the choice of religious 
officers, of the democratic tendency of the Catholic 
Church ; and, chief of all, his attempt to derive from 
the heathen poets and the popular beliefs the same 
kind of incitement to good works that the Christians 
found in their Scriptures, combined with the reluc- 
tant admission that such motives had not been very 
successfully applied, and that the hated Galilaeans 
bore at least the semblance of active philanthropists. 
The same principles as to priestly duties and a yet 
more strongly marked disappointment as to what 
had thus far been accomplished, in comparison with 
the works of the Galilaeans, are to be found in a let- 
ter addressed by Julian to Arsacius, high-priest at 
Galatia, 4 as well as in a very imperfect fragment to 
Theodorus, 5 who seems to have held priestly au- 
thority in the province of Asia. Arsacius is ordered 
to enforce discipline among the Galatian priests, and 



yulian as a Religious Reformer. 203 

to insist that they with their wives and families 
frequent regularly the religious services. He is also 
to see to the maintenance of inns for strangers, 
for which purpose the Emperor has made special 
provision. 

All people are to be exhorted to kindliness and 
hospitality by the example of Eumaeus in the 
Odyssey. The priests are not to flatter the civil 
magistrates with unbecoming servility. 

The fourth letter 6 of Julian which we shall cite is 
addressed to some person, probably in a priestly 
office, who had been guilty of an assault on a priest. 
Julian points out the heinous character of the offence, 
which is not to be excused by any alleged misconduct 
on the part of the priest who has received the blow. 
Whatever his actions, his sacred character ought to 
have protected him. In virtue of his own sacerdotal 
authority, both as Pontifex Maximus and as custo- 
dian that year of the Didymaean oracle, Julian pro- 
hibits the offender from undertaking any service 
about the temple for three months. At the end of 
that time, if the high-priest gives a satisfactory 
report of him, the oracle shall be consulted with a 
view to his restoration. But Julian forbears to curse 
him, as he disapproves of such a practice, and would 
rather pray, and exhort him to pray, that his sin may 
be forgiven. 

In all of these letters, we see Julian acting in a 
priestly capacity, using, for the purposes of religious 
discipline and reform, those offices which had of old 
been attached to the Imperial dignity, but not always 
regarded as an important branch of the Emperor's 



204 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

prerogative, and still less as conveying a far-reaching 
spiritual authority. It is natural to suppose that the 
active part taken by Constantius and his sons in 
assembling church councils and trying to settle 
ecclesiastical disputes, may have prepared men for 
the exercise of a similar power on behalf of the 
ancient institutions and cults. Before we pass on to 
see the nature of the efforts made by Julian as liter- 
ary controversialist and as supreme lawgiver, to win 
men from Christianity to Paganism and to edify 
pagans in their faith, we may compare with the tone 
of these letters the general indication of his intentions 
which caused great alarm among some Christians. 
The invectives of Gregory Nazianzen are not unex- 
ceptionable authority for Julian's motives and actions, 
but he had some real ground to go upon when he 
denounced the Emperor's projected reforms. For, 
as we have seen, one of Julian's chief ideas was to 
bring about an alliance between a pure and en- 
lightened morality and a devotion to the worship of 
the Hellenic deities, by infusing into Hellenic edu- 
cation an element of religious instruction, based on 
the old mythology and literature and designed to 
train the character and the affections of men up to 
the purest Hellenic ideal. 

Gregory says : 7 

" He [Julian] also, having the same design [as 
that of Sennacherib], was intending to establish 
schools in every town, with pulpits and higher and 
lower rows of benches, for lectures and expositions 
of the heathen doctrines, both of such as give rules 
of morality and those that treat of abstruse subjects, 



Julian as a Religious Reformer. 205 

also a form of prayer alternately pronounced, and 
penance for those that sinned proportionate to the 
offence, initiation also and completion, and other 
things that evidently belong to our [the Catholic] 
constitution. He was purposing also to build inns 
and hospices for pilgrims, monasteries for men, con- 
vents for virgins, places for meditation, to establish 
a system of charity for the relief of prisoners, and 
also that which is conducted by means of letters of 
recommendation, by which we forward such as re- 
quire it from one nation to another, — things which 
he had specially admired in our institutions." There 
may be some exaggeration in this statement, but in 
the main it is probably correct. 

We pass on to consider the controversy in which 
Julian engaged against the doctrine, discipline, and 
worship, of the Christian Church. This portion of 
his work has not the unique interest of that which 
we have considered or of that which will concern 
us hereafter. Destructive criticism does not require 
great originality of mind or strength of character, 
whereas the reconstruction of an ancient system in 
rivalry to an encroaching new one demands the 
powers of a philosopher and of a statesman in one. 
Arguments seldom make converts, and even in their 
historical aspect they interest us rather in showing 
what men regarded as the chief bases of their faith 
than as indicating the ground on which that faith 
actually rested. It is important for us, however, to 
observe the nature of the charges brought by Julian 
against Christianity, since they both illustrate the 
kinds of proof to which the Helleno-Roman world 



206 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

(here very unlike our own) would submit a religious 
system, and also help us to understand the attitude 
taken up in these matters by Julian himself. 

A question here meets us to which it is difficult to 
give a satisfactory answer: How far were Julian's 
arguments against Christianity original and how far 
were they derived from previous writers ? The chief 
reason why we cannot arrive at any degree of cer- 
tainty on this point is that very little of the ancient 
controversial writings against Christianity has escaped 
the hands of pious opponents who thought, perhaps 
rightly, that their best refutation was to be found in 
the " ordeal by fire." The arguments of the philoso- 
pher Celsus have been preserved for us in the replies 
of Origen. Occasionally they run along the same 
lines as Julian's, but the resemblances are merely 
such as one would expect to find between the rea- 
sonings of two Hellenes against the new faith. It 
does not seem probable that Julian studied Celsus. 
If, as Origen says, that philosopher was an Epicurean, 
Julian would not have felt much respect for his au- 
thority. He is much more likely to have read the 
works of Porphyry, no longer extant. But even if 
he borrowed from them, it is not probable that he 
did so to any large extent. He was no doubt far 
better acquainted with the Christian Scriptures and 
Christian usages than Porphyry was. But whether 
borrowed or original, these arguments represent his 
own convictions. We see clearly in them, what we 
have observed already, that Julian's main quarrel 
with Christianity was simply that it was non-Hellenic, 
— -that it was a barbaric religion which, unlike a 



Julian as a Religiotcs Reformer. 207 

national cult like that of the Jews or of the Egyp- 
tians, aspired to universality, and that, in spite of 
any compromise that might be made between luke- 
warm Christians on the one hand and half-educated 
Greeks on the other, the two systems of thought and 
life could not long exist side by side without one of 
them either secretly undermining or else absorbing 
the other. 

Julian's work against the Christians was probably 
written 8 during the winter 362-3 A.D. According to 
Jerome there were seven books, but Cyril, who exam- 
ined and confuted them, only mentions three. Of 
these the second was probably occupied with the 
Gospels and the third with the other books of the 
New Testament. The first is more general in its 
scope, and is devoted to an examination and com- 
parison of Hellenic, Jewish, and Christian theology. 
It has been restored almost entire from the quota- 
tions of Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, who wrote about 
432, and has been examined and published in an 
excellent edition by Dr. Neumann. The general 
drift is clear enough, though of course we cannot be 
sure that we have all the thoughts and reasonings in 
the order and fashion in which they first appeared, 
and we have probably lost a good many connecting 
links. 

In approaching Julian's objections to Jewish and 
Christian doctrine, we must not expect to find a 
similar idea of doctrinal proof to that which prevails 
in our own age. The modern mind has generally 
become sceptical by steeping itself in the methods of 
the inductive sciences, till it has come to demand, 



208 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

for every theory whether of sensible or supersensuous 
things, an absolutely verifiable basis of fact. Many 
of the modern difficulties with which Christianity has 
to contend are altogether out of harmony with the 
spirit of Julian. The miracles, for example, recorded 
in the Old and New Testaments, are so far from pre- 
senting to his mind a stumbling-block to faith that 
he speaks scornfully of the small number and unim- 
portant character of the mighty works attributed to 
Christ. But here, perhaps, we may draw a distinc- 
tion. Where he is dealing with things that are said 
actually to have happened, or to be about to happen, 
in the material world, and which are amenable to 
the evidence of the senses, Julian argues very much 
after the fashion of a modern sceptic. Thus in treat- 
ing of the story of the Tower of Babel, he naively 
remarks that if all the earth were made into bricks, 
it would not furnish material sufficient for a tower 
reaching only to the orbit of the moon. Again, he 
asks, from what source St. Luke could have derived 
his information as to the angel strengthening Christ 
in the garden, since the only possible witnesses were 
asleep. He complains of the want of agreement be- 
tween the pedigree given by St. Matthew and that 
in St. Luke, and of the confusions and contradictions 
in the narratives of the resurrection of Christ. In 
one passage, too, probably referring to the resurrec- 
tion of the saints at the Second Advent, 9 he remarks 
that not to distinguish, in forecasting the future, be- 
tween the possible and the impossible, marks the 
very summit of human folly. 

But in judging of all such matters of religious 



Julian as a Religiotts Reformer. 209 

belief as lie beyond the regions of observation and 
experiment, past, present, or future, the proofs which 
Julian demands are of another character. In his 
eyes any abtruse religious doctrine handed down by 
tradition or thought out by a great and original 
mind is worthy to be received if it be sufficient to 
acccount for known facts, and if it harmonises with 
our innate ideas of the character of God and the 
duty of man. 

Thus in combating the Jewish account of the 
creation of the world, Julian does not ask for evi- 
dence or appeal to physical probabilities, but tries to 
show that the story is inconsistent with itself, that it 
is insufficient to account for the facts, and that it 
presents unworthy notions as to the character of the 
Deity. In Genesis, he says, we have nothing stated 
about the creation of angels, and certain things " the 
waters," " the darkness," and " the deep " are left 
wholly unaccounted for as to origin. Again, the 
Creator is said to have made some things and simply 
to have commanded others to be. And how could 
an omniscient being have framed woman to be a 
help-meet for man, knowing all the while that she 
would be the cause of his fall from Paradise ? Still 
more serious are the two objections to the story of 
the first disobedience ; the notion that God would 
withhold from man so excellent a gift as the knowl- 
edge of good and evil, and the malignant jealousy 
supposed in the exclusion of Adam and Eve from 
the Tree of Life. Julian gives no rival theory of the 
origin of evil. He seems, from some passage in his 
works, to regard it as an imperfection due to the 
14 



2 1 o Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

connection of soul and body, but the absence of 
belief in an active power of evil is one of the causes 
or signs of his inability to apprehend thoroughly 
either the Jewish or the Christian religion. In the 
Jewish story of the confusion of tongues, again, be- 
sides criticising, as we have seen, the possibility of 
building a sky-reaching tower, Julian objects to the 
narrow view that must needs account somehow for 
differences of speech among nations, but sees no 
need to explain the origin of far deeper distinctions 
in customs and character. And even if the Babel 
story be accepted, it is insufficient to account for 
the facts. Natural distinctions are not to be attrib- 
uted to an arbitrary flat, but the commands of God 
must always be in accordance with the essential 
nature of things. 

For these reasons Julian greatly prefers, as a reli- 
gious explanation of the origin of man and the 
world, and of the differences among men and 
nations, the splendid myth in the Timceus, where the 
Demiurgus is represented as delegating to the inferior 
and derivative deities, the creation of the various 
orders of living beings, to which, within certain limits, 
the divine element or the rational soul is to be dis- 
tributed. This myth both affords a theory of the dif- 
ferences existing among various orders of life and 
various races of men, and also shows more clearly than 
the Jewish story the universal beneficence of the Cre- 
ator. The point in Jewish theology which most deeply 
stirs Julian's ire is its exclusiveness, and that in two 
ways : the supreme God is represented as jealously 
refusing to share His glory with the inferior deities, 



yulzan as a Religious Reformer. 2\\ 

whom from the use of the plural number (in Gen. 
xi., 7, and other passages) the Jews must have sup- 
posed to exist ; and again, He is supposed to have 
squandered all His favours on one little race in one 
corner of the world, to the neglect of the rest of 
mankind. " I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous 
God." What more unworthy notion of the Almighty 
could be formed than this ? Jealousy is a hateful 
passion in man ; is it not blasphemous to attribute it 
to God ? And has not Divine Providence bestowed 
on Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, as good gifts as 
those possessed by the Hebrews? Arts, sciences, 
politics, all those elements of Greek life and culture 
which the devout mind associated each with the 
idea of a particular divinity ; were they not a stand- 
ing protest against all Hellenes who abandoned the 
faith of their fathers for the worship of an arbitrary 
and capricious tyrant and of a dead Jew? 

Against the Christians, in addition to the objections 
urged to those points of theology held by them in 
common with the Jews, Julian asserted that in their 
interpretation of prophecy and in their elevation of 
Jesus to the rank of a divinity, they were taking un- 
warrantable liberties both with the Hebrew Scriptures 
and with the Gospel narrative. The " Prophet like 
unto Moses " (of. Deut. xviii., 15), the " Shiloh " (of 
Gen. xlix., 10), the " Star out of Jacob " foretold by 
Balaam (Numbers xxiv., 17), the " Virgin-born " (of 
Isaiah vii., 14) are not to be identified with Jesus, 
and, even if they were, they would not prove his 
divinity. This doctrine is entirely contrary to the 
Mosaic insistence on the unity of the Godhead. He 



2 i 2 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

refers also to the passage in which Israel, not Christ, 
is called the first-born of God (Ex. iv., 22). It is St. 
John, he says, who first asserts the divinity of Christ, 
and even he does it in such ambiguous language that 
we cannot tell whether he entirely identifies the 
Word of God with the man Jesus. The doctrine 
of the Xoyos was by no means strange to Julian's 
theology, but the conception of the " Word made 
flesh ' was to him a gross absurdity. He pre- 
ferred, as we have seen, to regard as the perfect 
image and the manifested power of the Changeless 
One, the life-giving and ever-active Helios, 10 whose 
functions in the world of ideas and among the sub- 
altern gods correspond to those of the revolving sun 
in the natural universe. 

If we proceed next to Julian's views as to Chris- 
tian practical morality, we find here, as in the theo- 
retical portion of his work, some strictures directed 
against what is common to the Christian and the 
Jew, others against what is peculiar to Christians. 
He regards the Decalogue as unworthy of the high 
estimation in which it has been held. With the ex- 
ception of the commands not to worship strange 
gods and to keep the Sabbath, it contains, he says, 
no elements which are not to be found in the codes 
of all peoples, and the exhortation against polythe- 
ism is enforced by the assertion of the doctrine, so 
hateful to Julian, of the jealousy and revengefulness 
of God. For the rest, the laws of the Jews are far 
inferior in justice and gentleness to those of Lycur- 
gus, of Solon, or of the Romans. Indeed, the Jew- 
ish stories of vengeance taken, or allowed to be 



Julian as a Religious Reformer. 2 1 3 

taken, on innocent and guilty alike (especially the 
story of Phineas and the Israelites in Num., xxv.), 
tend to confuse all notions of calm and deliberate 
justice. 

But to the Jewish law, whatsoever it may be 
worth, the Christians have not kept faithful, in spite 
of the saying of their Founder that he came " not 
to destroy but to fulfil." They have rejected the 
mild institutions and customs of the Greeks, but 
they have only learned to combine Jewish presump- 
tion with Gentile impurity. With a strange unfair- 
ness, Julian tries to prove the loose lives of Chris- 
tians by citing St. Paul's description of what some 
of the Corinthians were before their conversion 
(1 Cor., vi.), and when he comes to the words 
(v. 1 1), " but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified," 
he asks, contemptuously, how such washing can 
have been effected by the rite of baptism, which is 
unable to cure the diseases of the body, and surely 
incapable of reaching the soul. This protest must 
be taken in connection with the fact that, as we 
have seen, in Julian's day, baptism was often de- 
layed till the last illness, in order that with the pros- 
pect of purification before death, the catechumen 
might feel no fear of free living. Julian's indigna- 
tion at this pernicious idea is very strongly expressed 
in a passage at the end of his satire, The Ccesars 
(of which we shall say something later on), where 
he represents Jesus as standing and crying in words 
which are a parody on Matt, xi., 28 : " Come unto 
me, all ye that are corrupters, bloodstained, impure, 
and shameless, and I with this water will make you 



214 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

clean. And if ye again become subject to the same 
ills, I will grant unto him that beateth upon his 
breast and striketh his head that he shall be 
purified." 

This passage shows, perhaps, more clearly than 
any other how far Julian was from recognising in 
the Gospels any power to reclaim from evil or stim- 
ulate to good. He believed, as we have seen, in the 
possibility of repentance and amendment, even in 
the case of great offenders, but in the Christian 
Scriptures he saw nothing which could by any pos- 
sibility make any man better. If in one or two pas- 
sages he quotes the authority of Christ against his 
professed followers, it is merely an argumentum ad 
hoc, and does not show that personally he felt any 
respect for that authority. When, for instance, he 
upbraids the Christians for their quarrels among 
themselves, and says that neither Jesus nor Paul left 
any rules for persecution, he hastens to explain that 
fact by declaring that when Christianity was first 
set on foot, its promoters had no notion that it 
would ever spread much beyond the miserable little 
set of fanatics who had first received it. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that Julian could see nothing 
but simulation in the apparent virtues of the Chris- 
tians around him, and that he was but too ready to 
believe in all the vices attributed to them by their 
adversaries. 

It is in matters connected with religious worship 
that Julian has the least fault to find with the Jews 
and the most with the Christians. In all such mat- 
ters, he always shows himself strongly conservative, 



yulian as a Religious Reformer. 2 1 5 

and though he is willing to acknowledge the essen- 
tial identity of the spiritual beings venerated in 
widely different places and in very diverse forms, he 
would yet have each nation keep to its peculiar tra- 
ditional observances. He admires the fidelity with 
which the Hebrew law and ritual have been main- 
tained. He tries to find traces of augury and astrol- 
ogy in the history of Abraham, and acknowledges 
himself as a worshipper of the God of Abraham, of 
Isaac, and of Jacob. But the Galilaeans have re- 
jected all the Jewish ritual, and accepted from the 
Gentiles one thing at least : the license to eat what 
they will and never to fear defilement. They refuse 
to sacrifice and to venerate the images of the gods, 
either those made by man, or those shining upon us 
from the everlasting heavens. They do not practise 
circumcision, saying that " circumcision is of the 
heart," as if, forsooth, they were really separated 
from other men by superior virtue ! Yet by what 
authority was the Jewish law ever annulled for the 
followers of the Jews ? What right had Paul, that 
supreme charlatan, ever hovering between a Jewish 
and a universal interpretation of his doctrines, to 
declare that " Christ is the end of the law " ? But 
the Galilaeans depart most decisively from both 
^Hebrew and Hellenic modes of worship in their 
degrading reverence for the tombs of martyrs and 
for dead men's bones. Christ himself spoke of 
sepulchres with manifest aversion, and bade the 
dead bury their dead, and Isaiah prophesied against 
those who " sleep in the graves and in the tombs 
that they may dream dreams " (Is., lxv., 4. Sept.). 



2 1 6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

And, again, the worship of Christ seems to him 
directly contrary to Jewish monotheism. 

It will be readily acknowledged that though these 
controversial writings are not destitute of suggestive 
thoughts and instructive side-lights, yet in them Julian 
is not seen at his best, perhaps, indeed, theologians 
seldom are so seen in their most combative efforts. 
Yet on behalf of the history of religious thought, we 
cannot regret that they were written and have been 
in some measure preserved. For Julian affords a 
conspicuous illustration of the fact, not easily grasped 
and borne in mind, that it is possible for a man of 
devout spirit, subtle mind, and strong love of truth 
and justice, to fall far short of comprehending the 
most essential characteristics of a religion in the 
documents and institutions of which he has been 
carefully instructed. The question as to what quali- 
ties of heart and head are further requisite for such 
comprehension lies, of course, very far beyond the 
scope of our present investigations. 





Coin of Helena. Head of Isis Pharia. Reverse, vota 
pvblica : Isis Pharia on a galley, holding a sail. 



Notes on Chapter IX. 2 1 y 

NOTES ON CHAPTER IX. 

1 Ep, 21, Spanheim, 388-9. 
2 Sp. 288-305. 

3 This seems to me the natural meaning. Talbot renders it differ- 
ently. 

4 Ep. 49. 

5 Ep. 63. 

6 Ep. 62. 

7 First Invective, c., 11 1, C. W. King's translation. 

8 See introduction to the valuable edition by Neumann. These 
writings are not to be found in Hertlein, and are not treated of by 
Mucke. The earlier attempts to piece the fragments together were 
not quite satisfactory. 

9 Fragment from Suidas referred by Neumann to this connection. 

10 Besides Contra Chris, and Oration in Honour of King Helios^ 
see Letter to the Alexandrians. 




Coin of Smyrna. Imperal Times. Cybele in her chariot, drawn by lions. 



CHAPTER X. 



JULIAN S POLICY AGAINST THE CHRISTIANS. 

c< EyGojud rovS QsovS ovrs xrsivs6Bai rovi TaXiXaiovi ovrs 
rvrfrsdOai 7tapd to di'xaiov ovrs aXXo ri 7t(x6x Elv X-Ockov 
fJovXojuai, 7tponjuddQai fxivroi rovS bso6s(Ssii nal itdvv cp^jui 
Ssiv." Julian, Ep. vii. 

" In dealing with religious sectaries there is no middle course be- 
tween the persecution which exterminates and the toleration which 
satisfies." Henry Hallam. 



i-T seemed desirable to make some 
study of Julian's religious princi- 
ples and ideals, his aspirations and 
the motives of his efforts in work- 
ing for himself and for his subjects, 
before attempting to understand the 
legislative and administrative meas- 
ures which he used to effect the ends set before 
him. It is chiefly through these measures that he 
has been held up to the obloquy of all ages, as it 

218 




Julians Policy against the Christians. 219 

was by them that he incurred the violent hatred of 
his opponents and unfavourable criticism from some 
who were otherwise favourable judges of his conduct. 
Rhetoricians have delighted to point out the incon- 
sistency of a profession of calm and philosophic im- 
partiality with a practice of religious exclusiveness in 
bestowal of trust and privileges, and of an insidious 
proselytism accompanied by something very like 
persecution, in the army and in the State. Sober 
men of ancient and of modern times have regretted 
that Julian did not maintain the attitude of strict 
neutrality which would, they consider, have best be- 
come him. Yet if we realise the man and his en- 
vironment, the inconsistencies seem to explain 
themselves, and the strictures, if not wholly unde- 
served, to need modification and allowance. Re- 
ligious toleration, as we understand it now-a-days, 
must rest on one or other of two bases : on the opin- 
ion that differences in religious feelings and beliefs 
are of subordinate importance in the life of individ- 
uals and of societies ; or on the experience, which 
men in office are ever slow to acquire, that the put- 
ting down of error and the establishment of truth 
had better be left to other powers than those which 
hold supreme authority in the state. The former 
ground might be taken by some thinkers and by 
some politicians in Julian's day. We have seen that 
it was eloquently set forth, in the cause of humanity, 
by the philosopher Themistius, and it even finds 
expression in the earlier edicts of Constantine, who, 
though not quite indifferent himself, yet preferred 
that aid should be invoked on his behalf from rival 



220 Julian, Philospher and Emperor. 

heavenly powers rather than that a portion of his 
subjects should cease to pray for him at all. But, as 
has been already shown, to maintain the position of 
strict neutrality was found impossible by Constan- 
tine himself and by his sons after him. What we have 
learned of the mind and character of Julian is suffi- 
cient to convince us how utterly removed were his 
thoughts and feelings from everything that savoured 
of indifference or of an equal regard or non-regard 
to all religious forms. To him the one thing worth 
having in life was the consciousness of a close 
relation to the Divinity. This relation might, of 
course, be realised in divers forms, but the " Gali- 
laean superstition " tended to obscure it altogether, 
to give men unworthy thoughts of the Divine, and 
to cause an ungrateful neglect of all the manifesta- 
tions of a heavenly presence and power throughout 
the past life of the Hellenic and Roman peoples. 
Julian considered, as Libanius says, that " were he 
to make all men richer than Midas, every city greater 
than Babylon of old, and overlay with gold the walls 
of each city, yet should reform none of their errors 
in religion, he would be acting like a physician who, 
having taken charge of a person full of maladies in 
every part of his body, should doctor everything 
except the eyes." 1 

Nor was it possible for Julian to accept the second 
basis of religious equality : the strict limitation, in 
matters spiritual, of any authority that can effec- 
tively be asserted by the civil power. He saw, to 
his credit be it said, that a policy of persecution is 
worse than useless ; that (to quote again the words 



yuliaris Policy against the Christians. 221 

of Libanius) " a false belief in matters of religion 
you cannot eradicate by cutting and burning ; but 
even though the hand burns incense, the conscience 
blames and accuses the weakness of the body and 
holds to the same things as at first." Yet this be- 
lief did not hinder him from using the vantage- 
ground of his Imperial position to counteract the 
influence and the teaching which he regarded as per- 
nicious. It is a trite saying that autocrats do not 
easily recognise the bounds which must always exist 
to their absolute power. And when we consider 
the exalted position of a Roman Emperor, summing 
up in his person the authority of all the ancient 
magistrates, and of the sovereign people as well ; 
the one head of the civilised world, dispensing mercy 
and justice to all men, fighting and caring for them 
in life, and worshipped by them after death, we re- 
alise how the only check to his authority that such 
a potentate could readily conceive would be one of 
those revolutions that so frequently brought an end 
to authority, title, and life at the same moment. 
Julian, with his Greek conceptions of political pow- 
ers and relations, recognised the supremacy of law 
as above the individual will of the ruler, and re- 
garded the sovereign as bound to guard and rever- 
ence the constitution of the State. Yet finding 
himself in possession of the helm of the common- 
wealth, with practically unlimited powers in legisla- 
tion, administration, foreign politics, and appoint- 
ment of officials, and accepting these powers as 
instruments given to him from Heaven, to effect 
a radical reform in morals and religion, he was not 



222 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

likely to minimise his functions. His high ideal of 
the kingly office is shown not only in the sentiments 
attributed to him by Libanius, but in his own wri- 
tings, especially in The Ccesars, the Epistle to The- 
mistius, and the Second Oration in Praise of Constan- 
tius. He likes to dwell on the Homeric idea of 
kings as " shepherds of the people," and the office 
of a shepherd does not leave much scope for laisser- 
faire. Nor was it probable that the more zealous 
among the Neo-Platonic philosophers whom he had 
called to aid him by their counsels would help him 
to forget that he was a Hellene and a philosopher 
while seated on Caesar's throne. If he had adopted 
a far more fanatical policy than he did, he would, if 
we consider both the character of his advisers, and 
the absence of all reasonable critics, have been en- 
titled to the same kind of excuse as is accorded to 
more than one mediaeval monarch who proved " ane 
sair saint for the crown." Let him receive due hon- 
our in that he not only abjured every directly vio- 
lent means of action, but also in general strove to 
follow the lines of a fair and economical policy inde- 
pendently of any religious considerations. This 
policy we shall see when we consider his general 
legislation. 

That Julian should endeavour, by peaceable means, 
to lead men to embrace his own views, is what we 
must naturally expect. But the modern reader can- 
not but regret that with his intense belief in the 
pernicious effects of Christianity and in his own 
mission as philosophic despot, he should have some- 
times tolerated or even sanctioned measures which 



yuliaris Policy against the Christians. 223 

we regard as undignified and unfair. That he was 
actuated throughout by a radical misconception of 
Christianity in itself and in its relation to the Hel- 
lenic world, must likewise be acknowledged, and 
need not be excused. The bearing of these con- 
siderations will become more evident if we take up 
separately the chief points in which, as Emperor, he 
directed his policy against the Christians, their insti- 
tutions and doctrines. 

In trying to understand this policy, however, we 
meet with difficulties in the documentary and liter- 
ary evidence before us. Several of his laws are ex- 
tant, in the Theodosian Code or in the collection of 
his letters, but many must have been expunged, and 
of those which we have, investigators are not quite 
agreed as to how far some of them were framed with 
directly anti-Christian intentions. A good deal of 
what has been written on the subject by contempo- 
rary churchmen is marked by gross improbability 
and sometimes by pure childishness. In trying to 
use both the statements of his enemies and his own 
professions, we need to read carefully between the 
lines. In the one case, we have to notice what are 
the kinds of unfairness and intolerance of which 
Julian's enemies do not venture to accuse him. In 
the other, we need to reflect on the indirect con- 
sequences, painful and unjust to Christian individuals 
and communities, yet very likely to follow the 
measures which he, acting in all integrity, considered 
legitimate and reasonable. 

In the first place, Julian declared his intention not 
to persecute anyone for religious opinions. So far, 



224 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

he seemed to go back to the principle of the Milan 
decree. There is something almost naif in the in- 
dignation expressed by the leading Christians at his 
adoption of a course which allowed no scope for 
honourable suffering on the part of confessors. " He 
begrudged the honour of martyrdom to our com- 
batants," wrote Gregory Nazianzen, " . . . that 
we might suffer, and yet not gain honour as suffering 
for Christ's sake." 2 There certainly was an irritating 
contempt in the manner in which the boon of re- 
ligious liberty was granted. There might even seem 
an element of superstition in his fear lest sacrilege 
should be committed, if unwilling persons were 
dragged to the temples and altars of the gods. Two 
of his letters show how he understood and inter- 
preted the grant of liberty he was making. One is 
directed to a certain Artabius, and runs thus : " In 
the name of the gods, I do not desire that the Gali- 
laeans be killed or beaten contrary to justice, or that 
they suffer any other evil, but I emphatically assert 
that god-fearing persons are to receive greater 
honour ; for it is through the Galilaeans' folly that all 
things have been well-nigh overturned, but it is by 
the favour of the gods that we are all preserved. 
Wherefore we should honour the gods and god-fear- 
ing men and cities." 3 The other letter, which we 
shall have to cite again, is to the people of Bostra 
(probably the Arabian city of that name), and con- 
tains these words : " We do not permit anyone of 
them [the Galilaeans] to be dragged unwilling to 
the altars, but we expressly command them, if any- 
one wishes to partake with us in purifications and 



Julians Policy against the Christians. 225 

libations, first to offer the expiatory sacrifices and to 
supplicate the gods who avert evil. So far is it from 
us to desire or dream that any of the impious 
should ever desire or dream of sharing in our holy 
sacrifices, before he have purged his soul with sup- 
plications \\iraraiai\ to the gods, and his body 
with the appointed offerings." Further on, after 
complaining of the presumption and unruliness of 
the clergy and their partisans (to which we shall 
recur), he says that he has given them public per- 
mission to meet as they will, to offer what they are 
pleased to call prayers on their own behalf, but that 
they are not to abuse the privilege by deeds of 
violence and sedition. He has already held up his 
own policy in contrast to the partiality and persecu- 
tion of Constantius, and we cannot wonder that some 
of the Christians while accepting the grant of toler- 
ation, felt no great thankfulness, but were inclined 
to attribute it less to any really liberal policy on 
his part than to a hatred of his predecessor com- 
bined with a desire to sow dissensions among them- 
selves and to deprive them of the prestige of digni- 
fied suffering. The typical agitator of all times 
will " prefer the grievance " to its removal. 

With the edicts of toleration there went a number 
of arrangements by which Christian symbols were 
removed and pagan ceremonies restored in all public 
places and functions. Not that the extirpation of 
all signs of paganism had been as yet accomplished. 
Some tokens, however, especially the Labarum 
which was borne before the army, had publicly sig- 
nified that Christianity was the religion of Emperor 



226 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

and Empire. These were of course, removed. Public 
sacrifices were again offered and temples everywhere 
reopened, though, as we have seen, no one was com- 
pelled to take part in the worship of the Gods. An 
exception is mentioned by Gregory Nazianzen 4 which 
may possibly be due to a voluntary or involuntary 
misunderstanding. Julian seems to have restored 
the thuribulum or incense altar which had previously 
been one of the Imperial insignia, and to have ex- 
pected every soldier (or perhaps only each member 
of his own guard) who was entitled to receive the 
Imperial donative, to throw a few grains of incense 
on the fire. The ceremony implied little more than 
the kind of reverence which kneeling to perform 
homage used to betoken in feudal times, or bowing 
towards the mace in our House of Commons. 
There can be little doubt, however, that such an act 
could not have been performed without qualms by 
conscientious Christians, and Gregory relates how 
some soldiers, who had fallen into the snare, on dis- 
covering that some of their messmates regarded 
the act as a renunciation of Christianity, rushed in 
horror to the Emperor to implore the honour of 
martyrdom which, of course, though he banished 
them for their sedition, he had no desire to confer. 
Among the pagan symbols which replaced the 
Christian, the most remarkable are the heads of 
Egyptian deities, or his own head with divine sym- 
bols, on some of his coins. These coins, are, how- 
ever, considered 6 to belong to the later part of his 
reign. 

Another and very important part of his religious 



Julians Policy against the Christians. 227 

policy consisted in the withdrawal of a good many 
privileges that had of late come to be enjoyed by 
the Christian clergy. The cutting down of immuni- 
ties by which an important part of the well-to-do 
classes escaped their obligation to contribute towards 
the expenses of the government, is part of the system 
of finance reform which we shall consider hereafter. 
Other provisions follow from his idea of entrusting 
to pagan officials the administration of public doles, 
and from his principle of recognising no official rank 
among the different classes or orders of Christians. 
On this part of his action, the testimony of his 
laws and letters and of the writings of pagans and 
Christians is tolerably consistent. We have a letter 
of his to the Byzantines 3 in which he orders that no 
man who ought to discharge the duties of a senator 
shall be excused by reason of " the superstition of 
the Galilaeans." Again in the letter to the people 
of Bostra, he declares that the liberty granted to 
the clergy does not mean that they may exercise 
special judicial functions or draw up wills. He nat- 
urally associates this latter power with a desire to 
secure to themselves the wealth of the superstitious. 
In the Theodosian Code 6 we have special orders that 
Christians who are trying to escape from the charges 
to which they were liable as Decurions are to be 
recalled to their duties, and if they have sought 
refuge in the houses of powerful persons, such 
persons are to be heavily fined, while slaves or clients 
who, unknown to their masters or patrons, have aided 
and abetted such evasion, are to suffer capital 
punishment. Sozomen 7 says that he " compelled the 



228 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

virgins and widows, who, on account of their poverty, 
were reckoned among the clergy, to refund the pro- 
vision which had been assigned them from public 
sources." This demand cannot possibly have been 
made from the poor who were recipients of charity, 
and seems to point to a politic restriction of " benefit 
of clergy " as well as to a design for withdrawing 
the monopoly of charitable relief from the Christian 
communities and officers. Another of the advan- 
tages now withdrawn from the clergy was that of 
the frequent use of public means of conveyance. 
Ammianus 8 mentions the journeys of the clergy to 
their synods as sometimes, in the reign of Constan- 
tius, entailing serious damage to the finances of the 
state. The retrenchment might be commendable, 
yet we cannot wonder that it was felt to be hard, 
especially as free use of the public post was accorded 
by Julian to many of the philosophic friends whom 
he summoned to his court. 

Few things, perhaps, caused more intense dissatis- 
faction, or led to more of the violent local tumults in 
which some enthusiasts sought and found the glory 
of martyrdom, than the Emperor's orders for the 
restoration of the temple property of which the 
Christians had taken possession and the rebuilding 
of temples that had been destroyed. It is not easy 
to determine with accuracy the limits of the process 
of refunding, which, as is natural, some of Julian's 
enemies represent as a case of shameful spoliation. 
That what had been unlawfully seized should be 
restored does not seem unreasonable. That no new 
endowments should be made from the Imperial 



yulians Policy against the Christians. 229 

treasury, is what we must necessarily expect. How 
far recent gifts were to be resumed, our authorities 
do not agree in telling us. The Emperor's wish to 
be fair is shown in the fact that not only heathen 
temples, but churches belonging to sects that had 
been recently oppressed were to be rebuilt, as was 
especially the case with a church of the Novatians 
at Cyzicus. This had been destroyed by the Arian 
bishop, Eleusius, who was now compelled to rebuild 
it, within two months, at his own expense. 9 Any 
such orders, were, of course, attributed by Julian's 
detractors to his eagerness in sowing dissension 
among the Christian parties. With regard to the 
pagan restoration, it seems most probable that no 
uniform rule was followed, and that the execution 
of the Emperor's orders was modified by the discre- 
tion, or indiscretion, of the various provincial gov- 
ernors. Probably the very divers degrees in which 
the different regions were by that time christianised 
made the task much easier of accomplishment in 
some cities or districts than in others. On one 
point, however, we can have no doubt : that neither 
Julian's officials, nor Julian himself (who had not 
personally, before the days of his freedom, been 
withheld by conscientious scruples from assisting at 
rites which he hated), could quite understand, or 
see the justice of tolerating that compunction which 
made it impossible for some fiery souls to do or 
help to do anything that might tend to encourage 
or promote the " worship of devils." Hence the 
cases of persecution and martyrdom which must 
wear in the eyes of the civil government the appear- 



2 3° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

ance of just punishment necessitated by obstinacy 
and insubordination. One of the sufferers on whose 
treatment the church historians and the orator 
Gregory chiefly dwell, was Bishop Marcus of Are- 
thusa. He had, says Sozomen, demolished a costly 
and magnificent temple, and was now ordered to 
rebuild it. Difficulty in raising the funds, combined 
with religious scruples, induced him to fly. On 
hearing, however, that his friends were suffering on 
his account, he returned, and allowed himself to be 
brutally lynched by the mob which, by a refinement 
of cruelty, anointed his bruised body with honey, 
and exposed him, in a rush basket, to the stings of 
bees. His fortitude is said to have moved the ad- 
miration of the Praefect. A small amount would 
have at the last been accepted in commutation of 
the penalty, but he persisted in refusing even a 
penny to what he considered the idolatrous cause. 

In Arethusa, we see, the people were fanatically 
pagan. In Csesarea of Cappadocia, 10 situated in the 
regions where Julian had spent many dreary years 
of boyhood, it was the inhabitants of the city that 
had themselves been guilty of wholesale iconoclasm 
and sacrilege. Here, as was not unnatural, strict 
inquisition for the stolen property was made among 
the citizens, orders for rebuilding were peremptorily 
issued, and meantime the fiscal privileges of the city 
were reduced. 

Elsewhere the orders for temple restoration led to 
iconoclasm and to consequent suffering for con- 
science' sake on the part of zealous persons of pri- 
vate station. Thus, at Merus, in Phrygia, 11 three 



yuliaris Policy against the Christians, 231 

brothers broke into a temple at night, and destroyed 
the newly polished statues. We are told that they 
were tortured with a view to compelling them to 
offer sacrifice, and that they perished in agony 
rather than soil their consciences by complying. But 
if this is true, the governor of the province must 
have been acting on his own responsibility, and 
contrary to the Emperor's declared and customary 
policy. 

The point, however, about Julian's behaviour tow- 
ards the Christians which is of most importance in 
its results on ecclesiastical history, is the equal in- 
dulgence accorded to the representatives of jarring 
sects, which led to changes in the balance of ecclesi- 
astical parties. We have already seen, that, in the 
Arian reaction, the party opposed to the Nicene 
creed acquired the ascendency which it held to the 
death of Constantius. This party, however, was by 
no means united in itself. Arius, and his statesman 
supporter, Bishop Eusebius, had both been long 
dead, and while the Nicene party formed a tolerably 
compact band, their adversaries were divided into 
theological factions, which local jealousies, personal 
differences, and the rancour excited by Court intrigue 
and backstairs politics, had greatly emphasised and 
embittered. Without going minutely into differ- 
ences of creed, we may broadly distinguish three 
principal factions : — that of the semi-Arians, not in 
all respects incapable of reconciliation with the Ni- 
cenes, though dissatisfied with the Nicene formula : 
the Anomceans, who stood on the left wing of Arian- 
ism : and the Homceans, whose main principle was 



232 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

the rejection as unscriptural and superfluous of all 
such terms as " of the same essence," " of like 
essence/' and so forth. In 359 some of the leaders 
of the semi-Arian and Homcean parties had drawn to- 
gether and issued from Sirmium a somewhat ambigu- 
ous formula 12 to which, as they believed, or as they 
sought to persuade the Emperor Constantius, most 
men might assent without violating their principles. 
A council of bishops of the West was held at 
Ariminum and one of eastern bishops at Seleucia. 
Neither assembly was entirely favourable to the 
proposed compromise, but after a conference held at 
Constantinople, late in the same year, the influence 
of Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, and not a little 
pressure from the Emperor Constantius, who was 
eager to bring about some kind of harmony, and 
was easily swayed by some intriguing prelates who 
had secured his ear, forced a somewhat reluctant as- 
sent. This brought about a victory of the Homcean 
party, and the exile of some prominent members of 
other factions. 

To all these disputes, Julian was, of course, pro- 
foundly indifferent. As we have already seen, he 
had no more sympathy with one form of Christianity 
than with any other. If Arianism seemed to har- 
monise with Platonic doctrines of emanation, it de- 
prived King Helios of his glory to give it to one who 
had assumed the semblance of a man ; and between 
the various shades of Arianism, Julian probably took 
no pains to distinguish. The Nicene persuasion, on 
the other hand, was closely identified with the one 
man whose energy and single-heartedness Julian had 



yulians Policy against the Christians. 233 

most reason to regard with aversion and dread, the 
exiled patriarch of Alexandria. The Emperor's first 
decided step in these matters was to order the recall 
of all who had been exiled for religious reasons. He 
seems next to have held a conference at Constanti- 
nople in which he vainly hoped to bring about some 
compromise 13 and a general toleration. " Hear me," 
he cried, as the voices of the disputants drowned his 
arguments, " the Franks have heard me, and the 
Allemanni." But the words, adopted from the say- 
ing of his hero-model, Marcus Aurelius, fell to the 
ground. If he were to establish a modus vivendi 
among Christians, it was not to be by means of any 
concessions drawn from the hostile camps. 

Among the prelates recalled from banishment, two 
may be especially noticed, the one for his curious 
personality and wandering life, and for his friendly 
relations with the Emperor, the other for his com- 
manding influence and the strength of his opposition 
to Julian's aims, — these are Aetius of Antioch and 
Athanasius of Alexandria. 

Aetius 14 seems to have been an Anomcean, of the 
class of Arians furthest removed from catholic or- 
thodoxy. Certain expressions of a different ten- 
dency attributed to him are probably less due to 
vacillation or to self-interest than to the delight 
often taken in paradoxical and sensational state- 
ments by a mind more subtle than deep. He had 
worked his way up from the ranks, having been left 
by his father, an army contractor who had failed in 
his business, in a state of extreme destitution, with 
a widowed mother to support. According to one 



234 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

account, he became for a time a household slave, 
and after he had recovered his liberty, a working 
tinker. The craft of a gilder seems to have been 
that by which, when grown up, he supported his 
mother and himself, till her death set him free to 
follow his own intellectual bent, though he returned 
to his gilding when more congenial work failed. His 
quick intellect, which shone in the logical and rhet- 
orical disquisitions so much practised during that 
age, attracted the attention of certain teachers, 
Christians and pagans, under whom he studied at 
Antioch, Tarsus, and elsewhere. He seems to have 
acquired an ardent passion for controversy, and on 
being once worsted in a disputation with a heretical 
teacher, felt that life was no longer worth living, till, 
as Philostorgius says, a vision appeared to comfort 
him, and " from that time forth Aetius had a special 
gift from God which saved him from defeat in his 
disputations." Subsequently, at Alexandria, he con- 
founded a leading Manichee so completely, that the 
unfortunate heretic sickened and died in a few days. 
He had received ordination from the Arian bishop of 
Antioch, and seems to have used his clerical status as 
a means of exercising more actively his power of dis- 
putation. When the Homcean party obtained the 
ascendency, he was banished, and now by Julian's 
order he was recalled. The Emperor must have 
been personally acquainted with him during some 
period of his life, possibly when Aetius was living in 
Constantinople, or else in Asia. According to one 
account, Gallus had employed Aetius in a fruitless 
attempt to make Julian a good Christian. Julian 



yuliafts Policy against the Christians. 235 

was probably attracted by the versatile intellect of 
the man, and by his skill in logic and dialectic. Or 
there may have been another reason for showing 
him especial favour. Aetius, in addition to his other 
occupations, had studied and practised the art of 
medicine, and Julian, who was very desirous of 
maintaining the high status of physicians, may have 
hoped to win over Aetius from less fruitful fields to 
the useful art of healing. Accordingly he wrote 
to invite him, 15 in the name of old acquaintance, to 
come to Court, and invited him to make use, for the 
purpose, of the public post. He bestowed upon him 
a landed estate near Mitylene, in Lesbos, to which he 
was forced to retire when the time of persecution 
returned for him on- Julian's death. He was, how- 
ever, pursued thence, and finally closed his varied 
career in an intimate circle of like-minded friends at 
Constantinople, in the reign of Valens. 

Widely different were the character and fortunes 
of the great Nicene champion, whom Julian's man- 
date recalled from his third exile. Athanasius had 
been violently, even treacherously ejected from Alex- 
andria in 356, and had since that time kept up from 
his Egyptian retreat, by secret means, the influence 
which he had so powerfully exerted over both men 
and women who had fallen under his personal sway. 
Meantime, the bishopric was held by George of Cap- 
padocia, a violent man who showed no tact in con- 
ciliating parties. While severely prohibiting the 
worship and usages of the Nicene party, and even, 
according to Athanasius, persecuting the private 
members of the party with a refinement of cruelty, 



236 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

George enraged the pagans by parading, with cere- 
monies insulting to their feelings, the purification of 
the temple of Mithras, and won over the governor 
of the province to lend the secular arm to the execu- 
tion of his religious policy, and to allow of certain 
financial claims which the archbishop asserted over 
the Alexandrians. 16 This governor, Artemius, who 
was in Constantinople at the time of Julian's acces- 
sion, suffered the capital punishment which he seems 
richly to have deserved. George experienced a yet 
more cruel fate. He became the object of the sum- 
mary justice of an infuriated mob, and his mutilated 
corpse was then burned along with that of the camel 
on which he had been exposed to the popular ven- 
geance. On hearing of this event, Julian wrote a 
letter to the Alexandrians in terms of reproof tem- 
pered by compliments. He acknowledges the great 
provocation they had received from the impious man 
on whom summary justice has been inflicted, but 
blames them for not ridding themselves of the griev- 
ance by lawful and regular means. He forbears to 
punish them, however, in consideration of his respect 
for their tutelary deities, and also his regard for his 
uncle who was at one time their ruler. At the same 
time, he wrote to the Praefect Ecdicius, to cause a 
careful search for all George's books lest any should 
be destroyed or lost in the general plunder. Many 
of them only contain the doctrines of the impious 
Galilaeans, but there are also works of philosophy and 
rhetoric, which Julian had previously borrowed in 
order to have copies made, and he does not wish the 
good to perish with the evil. 



yulians Policy against the Christians. 237 

Meantime, Athanasius returned, resumed his epis- 
copal functions, and was soon as powerful as ever in 
the great city itself and in the whole Eastern Church. 
He took prompt measures to heal old breaches and 
to secure common action against the danger which 
threatened all Christians alike. A synod of twenty- 
one bishops was held at Alexandria in the summer of 
362, in which rules were passed for facilitating the 
accession of Semi-Arians to the Nicene party, and 
for permitting a few differences, that seemed to be 
merely verbal. But the action of Athanasius was 
not within the limits assigned by Julian to the prin- 
ciple of religious liberty. His indignation was deeply 
stirred by the news that Athanasius had been bap- 
tising some high-born Greek ladies. Accordingly 
he wrote a very sharp letter to the Alexandrians, 
explaining to them that recall from exile did not 
involve resumption of episcopal functions, still less 
liberty to pursue a course of action hateful to god- 
fearing citizens. The offender must again be ban- 
ished forthwith. The Emperor's desire was complied 
with, and Athanasius withdrew. " Let us retire for 
a little while," he said to his friends, " it is but a 
small cloud, which will soon pass away." While he 
in Upper Egypt resumed his life of dangerous ad- 
venture and of underground influence, his friends in 
Alexandria petitioned for his recall. This request 
led to another letter from Julian to the Alexandri- 
ans which displayed, yet more clearly than the pre- 
vious one, his sentimental regard for the historic 
greatness of Alexandria, his detestation of the 
archbishop, and his total incapacity of recognising 



2 3 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

anything of real religion in the attachment of the 
Christians to their faith and to its champions. He 
appeals to them by the memory of their pious 
founder, Alexander ; by the honour ever shown to 
Sarapis and to Isis in this their chosen city ; by the 
ancient lordship of Egypt over Israel, which should 
shame them out of their adhesion to a sect sprung 
from the Jews ; by the glories of the Eternal Sun, 
so vastly more to be admired than those of a mortal 
man ; by the prosperity which the city had enjoyed 
under the institutions it now would fain destroy ; 
and his appeals become threats as he insists on his 
determination never to recede in this matter. He 
wishes that all the new doctrine were embodied in 
Athanasius, that it might be crushed at one blow. 
A letter like this showed the Alexandrians the fu- 
tility of halting between two opinions. It gives 
plausibility to the view that if Julian had lived much 
longer, his reign could never have been held up as 
one of religious toleration. 

Another of Julian's acts which has met with severe 
criticism both from friends and foes, seems on nearer 
view to be logically and necessarily connected with 
his idea of his own mission and of the corruption of 
the times, — I refer to his edict prohibiting Chris- 
tians from giving instruction in the public schools. 

This edict we possess in two forms. In the Theo- 
dosian Code 17 there is a provision that no man shall 
be suddenly appointed public lecturer, but that a 
decree of the members of the Curial Order in each 
city must be obtained, the final approval being re- 
served to the Emperor himself. It is not certain, 



yulians Policy against the Christians. 239 

however, that this law was designed especially against 
the Christians. It might still stand under Christian 
emperors as a guard to public morals. Much more 
explicit and definite is a document published among 
his letters. In this he starts from certain undeni- 
able propositions, as to the importance of good 
principles and right opinions in those who have to 
superintend the education of youth, and consistently 
deduces from them a system of prohibition which 
everyone would now stigmatise as persecuting, and 
which even the favourable and sober-thinking Ammi- 
anus blames as " inclemens." He states clearly that 
whereas teachers of rhetoric and philosophy have to 
expound the ancient classics, they cannot do so ade- 
quately and honestly if they consider these classics 
to have been utterly misguided even in all those 
points as to which right belief is most important. 
Such teachers ought, if they are honest, to give up 
their emoluments and confine their expositions to 
Matthew, Luke, and other writers whom they really 
reverence. They are not to be compelled to attend 
the temple services, but they must make choice be- 
tween their educational profession and their Chris- 
tianity. 

What we have observed in preceding chapters on 
the general character of education at this time and 
on Julian's way of regarding Greek letters and 
Greek religion as indissolubly bound in one, fur- 
nishes abundant comment on this enactment. We 
may perhaps conclude that Julian w r as here more 
far-sighted than his critics, that whole-hearted loy- 
alty to the philosophers and poets of old was impos- 



240 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

sible to those who studied their works merely for the 
form and disparaged all the underlying ideas. Had 
he been a little more far-sighted still, he might have 
discovered that by means of a classical education, 
however maimed and one-sided, elements of old- 
world culture would gradually filter into the Chris- 
tian Church, and in time effect a combination of 
many Hellenic elements with the primitive data 
from Palestine. He wished, however, for no such 
combination, and with the hopefulness known only to 
a religious enthusiast, he trusted by means of sound 
and appreciative instruction in the great thoughts 
and the manifold life of the Greeks of old, to undo 
all the work of the centuries during which more 
potent influences had been undermining the Hel- 
lenic. It is possible to disapprove his policy without 
condemning his generous indignation against that 
ingratitude which would turn to account the work 
of philosophers and orators for purposes of Christian 
apology and pulpit eloquence, while reviling the 
memory of the great minds and characters whence 
that work had proceeded. Some feelings of gratitude 
to the teachers of old are certainly to be found in 
some of the broader Christian minds of the school 
of Origen, and even in the works of a few leaders 
like Augustine, but they are ever mixed with a pity- 
ing or contemptuous disparagement which might, to 
their enthusiastic devotees, seem more insulting than 
hatred. 

It is not easy to say how much practical effect 
this edict produced. Proaeresius, of whom mention 
has already been made, and who was personally on 



jfulians Policy against the Christians. 241 

friendly terms with the Emperor, resigned his chair 
at Athens. A certain popular instructor in rhetoric 
at Rome, Victorinus, 18 who had been slow and 
reluctant in avowing his faith, but was now staunch 
in abiding all its consequences, also gave up his 
profession. A curious countermove was begun by 
some educated Christians who wished their children 
to receive a literary education without coming under 
anti-Christian influences. A certain Apollinarius, 19 
a Syrian by birth, with his son of the same name, 
took upon themselves, with the approval and ad- 
miration of their contemporaries, to compose a 
Christian literature free from the barbarism of 
the canonical books. They produced a " grammar 
consistent with the Christian faith," a version of 
Bible History in epic and dramatic forms, and a 
Gospel improved into would-be Platonic dialogues ! 
It was well that the Christian youth for whom this 
fare was produced speedily recovered permission to 
browse in more wholesome pastures. The genius 
of the vigorous barbarian races might one day be 
strong enough to cast into new form some part of 
the sacred matter brought from the East. But it 
was not a task to be safely attempted by the 
decrepit intellect of Asia or Greece. 

Apart from the direct action of Julian, by laws 
and other acts of government, much was done in 
indirect ways that aroused the discontent of many 
Christians and challenged the criticism of the indif- 
ferent. It must have been annoying to see turncoats, 
like the sophist Hecebolius, who was only too ready 
to turn again directly after Julian's death, received 

16 



242 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

into high favour. It is melancholy to find a man 
generally enthusiastic for truth and earnestness, 
admiring the conduct of a pagan who had received 
and held a bishopric in order to save the temples of 
his diocese from spoliation. 20 Still worse was it to 
see an advocate of civilisation and courtesy insult to 
the face an old bishop who had come to reproach 
him, even though the old man escaped with im- 
punity. 21 It was a sad but undeniable fact that 
city mobs when they inflicted outrages on the pagan 
side, as we have seen happen at Alexandria and 
Arethusa, and as was also the case at Gaza and 
elsewhere, received far less castigation than turbu- 
lent Christian communities, like those of Caesarea 
and of Edessa. 22 Whether it be possible for a 
religious man, in possession of far-reaching authority, 
to try to serve the cause of religion without ever 
being guilty of any acts of unfairness or of unrea- 
sonable violence, it is hard to say. Certainly such 
a height of impartiality combined with zeal was not 
attained by the Emperor Julian. 





Coin of Julian. Reverse, vota publica : Isis suckling Horus. 



Notes on Chapter X. 243 

NOTES ON CHAPTER X. 

1 Libanius ; Epitaph ; King's translation, p. 160. 

2 First Invective, 58 ; King's translation. 

3 Ep. 7, I subjoin a list of the principal letters of Julian on mat- 

ters relating to the Christians, as chronogically arranged by 

Schwarz : 
Ep. 31, Recalling Bishop Aetius, Jan., 362. 
Ep. 10, To the Alexandrians, on the murder of Abp. George, 

Jan., 362. 
Ep. 9, To Ecdicius respecting George's books, Jan., 362. 
Ep. 7, To Artabius on the meaning of toleration, between Feb. 

362 and Jan. 363. 
Ep. 26, To the Alexandrians, ordering the expulsion of Atha- 

nasius, March, 362. 
Ep. 11, To the Byzantines, on duties of Christian senators, etc., 

May or June, 362. 
Ep. 36, To Porphyry (probably treasurer) concerning George's 

books, May or June, 362. 
Ep. 78, Story of pagan Bishop Pegasius, between Feb. 362 and 

Feb. 363. 
Ep. 52, To the people of Bostra (in Arabia) Aug., 362. 
Ep. 42, Edict against Christian schoolmasters, between Aug. 

and Nov., 362. 
Ep. 6, To Ecdicius, respecting Athanasius, Oct., 362. 
Ep. 51, To the Alexandrians, reproaching their desire for Atha- 
nasius, Nov., Dec, 362. 

4 Invective, i, 83. 
6 By Schiller. 

6 Especially xii., tit. i., 49, 50, and xiii., tit. i., 4. 

7 v., 5 ; Bohn's translation. 

8 xxi., 16. 

9 Soz., v., 5. Socrates (iii., 11), says that the church had been de- 
stroyed by Euzoi'us, the Arian bishop of Antioch. 

10 Soz., v., 4. 

11 Soc, iii., 15 ; Soz., v., 2. 

lor viov ojjloiov rop Ttarpl uazcc itOLVTa, goS at ctyiai 
yftacpal \syov6i re nai didadnovdi. 

13 Ammianus, xxii., 5. He attributes Julian's policy, as do the 
Christian writers, to a wish to increase disaffections, but the explana- 
tion seems superfluous. 



244 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

14 He bears a very bad character in the writings of the orthodox 
historians, but Philostorgius (iii. , 15, seg.) gives a more favorable and 
interesting account of his career. 

15 Letter xxxi., (Aetius is styled bishop in the heading to this letter, 
but he seems not to have had any particular see.) 

16 Besides the ecclesiastical historians, see Ammianus, xxii„, n. 

17 Bk. xiii., tit. iii., 5. 

18 See an interesting account of Victorinus in the Confessions of 
Augustine, book viii. 

19 Socr., iii., 16; Soz., v., 18. 

20 For the story of the pagan bishop Pegasius, see Jul., Letter 78. 

21 The blind Man of Chalcedon, see Socr., iii., 12 ; Soz., v., 4. 

22 See Ep., 43. 






Coin of Helen : Mother of Constantine. 
Reverse, secvritas reipvblicae. 



Coin of Tarsus : Head 
of the Tyche of the city 



CHAPTER XL 



LEGISLATIVE LABOURS AND ADMINISTRATIVE 
REFORMS. 

" "Edri ydp o vojuoZ eyyovoZ rrji SiktjS, iepov dvdBrj/j,a nal 
Bsiov dXrjQdoi rov jueyidrov Qeov, ov ovdajucoS o ys e/ucppoov 
dvrjp ite.pl djuiKpov rtoniderai ovde dnjuddei dWd kv dixy 
Ttdvroc dpaov rovi juev dyaQovS rijirjdEi 7tpoQvjUGD$, rovi 
jiioxQf/po-bS de e<Z dvvajuiv iddOai KaBdrtEp iarpoS dyaQoS 
TtpoBvjxrjdErair Jul., Or. II., 89. 

" Princes are like to Heavenly Bodies which cause good or evil 
times, and which have much veneration but no rest." Bacon. 

HEN we turn from our attempt to 

follow Julian's ideas and course of 

\ action, in religious affairs, to inquire 

\ into his general policy of govern- 

I ment as shown in legislation and 

administration, we have indeed to 

contemplate another side of his 

activity, but we do not find ourselves, as in 

the study of some theorist-politicians, introduced 

245 




246 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

to him in a new character. Julian was, as we 
have seen, a highly-idealistic philosopher, called, as 
he believed, to effect a reactionary reform in religion 
and to direct the affairs of a vast empire. Yet he 
does not appear before us in a three-fold character. 
His principles of religious reorganisation were, as has 
been shown, an essential part of his speculative and 
practical philosophy. And his statesmanship was 
entirely that of a philosophical reformer. Not that it 
was visionary and unpractical, but rather it was as a 
rule based upon general principles which there was 
no attempt to disguise. These principles are, of 
course, only such as are compatible with enlightened 
despotism. Julian's Hellenism was not of the kind to 
make him long to go back to the republican glories 
of the Greek states in their golden days. In his letters 
to great cities of old, notably to Athens, Argos, and 
Alexandria, he shows, it is true, what we might 
regard as an exaggerated respect for their ancient 
prestige, but this respect is not accompanied by any 
grants of actual power. There may have been po- 
litical as well as financial objects in Julian's attempts 
to encourage municipal life and prosperity. There 
may be something more than mere sentiment in the 
deference which he paid (as already narrated) to the 
Roman Senate and to old Roman republican usages. 
But republicanism in its essential principles was at 
that time so far beyond the range of practical poli- 
tics, that no man of sense could dream of restoring 
it. It is possible that Julian scarcely knew that it 
had been destroyed, or realised how much the world 
had changed since the days of Aristotle's Politics, 



Labours and Reforms. 247 

just as few people of our day distinguish the dif- 
ference between our government and that which 
existed at the passing of the Bill of Rights. As 
"shepherd of the people" he aimed at the general 
prosperity, not at the extension of political freedom. 
Liberty might still furnish themes for rhetorical exer- 
cises. The politician, whether philosopher or not, had 
very little concern with it except in the universally 
undesirable form of rude license in city mobs. 

In one sense, of course, every man who engages 
in public life and in abstruse speculation at the same 
time must feel that he is leading two lives. Action 
and thought must ever call forth different faculties 
and necessitate the contemplation of life from differ- 
ent stand-points. This contrast was very strongly felt 
by Julian himself. 1 But the nature of public affairs 
in his day was such as to make the contrast less con- 
spicuous than at most times and places. Firstly, 
there was little scope in the Empire at that time 
for anything like state-craft. There were no rival 
foreign powers to be dealt with by skilful diplomacy, 
unless we may regard the relations of the border 
states between the Roman and the Persian Empires 
as furnishing a field for that art. If they did, the 
field was not skilfully cultivated by Julian. And 
in domestic affairs, there were no distinct political 
parties to be balanced against one another, and 
dealt with by measures of compromise or of subju- 
gation. There were, of course, ecclesiastical parties, 
but Julian would have disdained to steer between 
them. The favour he showed to the Jews was due, 
in all probability, to a certain limited sympathy with 



248 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

them and a hatred for those that rivalled them, 
rather than to any scheme of balancing their influ- 
ence against that of the Christians. Then again 
the character of all legislation and of administrative 
orders under the Empire had been imposed on it by 
juristic theorists who loved order and elegance, and 
liked to give reasons for every step that was taken. 
Vested rights and interests and considerations of 
temporary expediency might be lightly set aside. 
On the whole the task of legislation might seem to a 
philosophical prince one well worthy of his best 
efforts. 

Under the term legislation we must include much 
that was of the nature of temporary enactment. 
The commands which were issued by Julian, and 
against which there was no appeal, have generally 
come down to us in the form of instructions issued 
by him to Praetorian Praefects, Governors of pro- 
vinces, and other officials. Many of these were 
afterwards admitted into the Code published by 
Theodosius II. in the year 438, although even among 
these a large number must before that time have 
ceased to be operative. Others we find interspersed 
in the collection of his letters public and private. 
Of others again we know the general purport from 
statements made by the historians and orators. 
Many must have perished, and with regard to many 
more our indications are slight and indefinite. Yet 
enough remains to enable us to discern generally the 
difficulties with which any ruler of the Empire had 
to contend, and the. ways in which Julian endeav- 
oured to meet them. 



Labours and Reforms. 249 

The two great and cognate evils which seem to 
have been felt through the length and breadth of 
the Empire were the uncertain and imperfect ad- 
ministration of justice and the crushing and unequal 
weight of the public burdens. These diseases were 
too deeply seated to be amenable to satisfactory 
methods of cure. But palliative measures might be 
devised, and such measures we see in Julian's legisla- 
tion. The object everywhere seems to be to tighten 
the control exercised by the central authority over 
all public officers, judicial, financial, and military. 
An attempt is made to alleviate undue pressure in 
some quarters, even at the risk of offending powerful 
persons ; temporary distress is met by measures of 
temporary relief, and economy is sought in Imperial 
and public expenditure. 

The historian Ammianus 2 describes Julian's re- 
gard for equity and right as being such as to fulfil 
his aspiration of restoring to mankind the goddess 
of Justice, who had been banished afar by human 
vice and iniquity. Ammianus goes on to say that 
in his legislative policy, at least, there were excep- 
tional cases in which he was inconsistent with him- 
self. These were such as concerned his religious 
measures, in which, from our point of view, not 
much inconsistency appears, and also those wherein 
he showed himself indifferent to certain class-privi- 
leges, as to which the views of Ammianus may seem 
to us less enlightened and impartial than those of 
his master. Libanius is less reserved in his lauda- 
tions, and he states very emphatically that the actual 
business of jurisdiction was to Julian not only a 



2 5° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

serious duty but a keen pleasure. And when we 
consider what the law-courts were, and in what di- 
rection Julian's education and temperament had 
directed his tastes, we can readily believe that lis- 
tening to disputations was often to him a refreshing 
amusement after military and financial business. 
Libanius says 2 : " Though he had it in his power to 
leave this fatigue to the most learned and incorrup- 
tible of judges, he nevertheless offered himself for 
one of those that try causes, and stripped himself 
for the combat — unless anyone objects to the word 
and says that law-cases were no combat for him, 
but rather a diversion and a rest ; so easily did he 
repel the deceptions of the advocates and seize upon 
the right thing in each affair, testing false arguments 
by true ones with incredible quickness of wit, refut- 
ing and baffling quibbles by means of laws." 3 He 
goes on to describe Julian's conduct in a way that 
would make him guilty on one occasion of something 
very like a quibble. A plaintiff was using papers 
which the Emperor strongly suspected of being 
forgeries. Nevertheless, as the opposite party had 
not detected or proved the deceit, the Emperor, 
" as slave to the law " gave his decision in favour of 
the forger, along with a reprimand for his' crime. 
" In this way he contrived not to infringe the law 
and yet to punish the culprit." But the justice to 
be obtained from the Imperial court was usually of a 
more substantial and less pedantic kind, or it would 
hardly have happened that, as the orator subsequently 
relates, the court was flocked to by suitors of all 
kinds who sought refuge from oppression and wrong. 



Labours and Reforms, 251 

There were three ways in which the judicial action 
of the Emperor might be applied to the settlement 
of individual cases. 4 By means of a sapplicatio, one 
party to a suit could, before the trial, request from 
the Emperor either a personal hearing, or a letter of 
instructions to a special or to the ordinary judge. 
As a rule the rescripts in accordance with the suppli- 
cationes were drawn up by secretaries, and the deci- 
sions pronounced by judices without any personal 
intervention of the Emperor. But Julian, as we 
have seen, enjoyed the hearing of causes, and prob- 
ably many more were judged by him in first instance 
than by his predecessors and followers. 

It is the maintenance of the two other methods 
of Imperial intervention, however, that is the object 
of special precaution in Julian's legislation : the ap- 
pellatio and the relatio. The appellatio was the proc- 
ess by which recourse was had after the decision of 
a case by any magistrate under the rank of a Prae- 
torian Prsefect, to the judgment of the Emperor 
himself. Such final judgment might be delegated 
to a special commissioner, or might be pronounced 
by the Emperor in his consist or inm, which was a kind 
of State-Council comprising the chief officers of the 
Imperial household. Or he might settle the matter 
personally in the Senate of Rome, or in that of Con- 
stantinople, which received from Julian powers and 
privileges equal to those of the Roman Senate. In 
the Theodosian Code, we have laws of Julian's second 
year, to facilitate and regulate appeals from lower 
judges to higher, and from the higher to the Em- 
peror himself. 6 Such appeals must be made within 



252 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

thirty days from the passing of the sentence, the 
necessary written statements must accompany the 
appeal ; and the arrangement of such cases must be 
consigned by the provincial Vicar to some specially 
appointed official. If such appeal has, by means of 
terrorism, been hindered within the legitimate period, 
it may, on cause shown, be still held valid. 

The third method was that of the relatio or consul- 
tatio. In some difficult cases, the judge, after hear- 
ing statements and evidence, was expected to send 
the information to the Emperor and await his de- 
cision. In one of Julian's laws, 6 complaint is made 
that many Rectores have failed to do their duty in 
this respect, and such as shall offend again are sen- 
tenced to a heavy fine. 

Besides hearing and providing for the hearing of 
difficult cases, both in first instance and on appeal, 
Julian exerted himself to facilitate the administration 
of justice generally, to correct anomalies, and to de- 
liver those seeking redress from the chicanery of the 
unscrupulous advocates who, if the descriptions of 
Ammianus are to be trusted, constituted the bane of 
the whole system. 7 An inscription of his reign has 
been found at Amorgos, containing provisions for 
the hearing of petty cases. 8 He made it impossible 
to claim back money that had been paid for unlaw- 
ful purposes, especially for that of bribery. 9 He 
repealed a law of Constantine allowing married wo- 
men under age to sell their property. 10 He put an 
end to the system by which litigants postponed the 
day of trial, while they summoned as parties to the 
suit men living at great distances. 11 He made it un- 



Labours and Reforms. 253 

lawful for a commission to expire with the death of 
a principal party to a suit. It seems strange that 
laws should have been needed to assert that in ordi- 
nary cases long custom should be followed, but two 
of Julian's laws make this provision against arbitrary 
innovations." 

More important, perhaps, in his own eyes and in 
those of his contemporaries, were the measures he 
adopted for moderating and equalising the public 
burdens. 13 We have already seen that the population 
of the whole Empire was heavily taxed, and taxed 
in a way that seemed to cause the maximum of suf- 
fering and discouragement with the minimum of 
substantial advantage. The land, industry, and com- 
merce, were subject to heavy dues, and in general 
the responsibility for regular payment, both of Im- 
perial and of local taxes, rested with the body of 
leading and well-to-do citizens of every community 
who constituted the body of Curiales or Decuriones. 
This system was fatal to enterprise and to local pa- 
triotism. Those concerned with the assessment of 
taxes naturally endeavoured to restrict individuals 
within the hereditary industrial corporations from 
which payment could be most effectually levied. 
And the citizens who from wealth and status should 
naturally have been the leaders and protectors of the 
people came to have no more eager desire than to 
escape from a dignity of which the obligations were 
so much more conspicuous than the privileges. In 
these circumstances, Julian's objects, as those of any 
serious financier in like case, were two-fold : to di- 
minish, by economical government, the amount re- 



2 54 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor, 

quired to meet demands, and to prevent, by very 
strict enactments, the evasion of burdens by those 
on whom they would naturally fall. He also en- 
deavoured on some occasions to act directly on the 
immediate causes of local distress by issuing direc- 
tions to merchants and tradesmen. In this last ex- 
pedient, as we shall see when we come to narrate his 
dealings with the people of Antioch, he was not emi- 
nently successful. Here we will consider chiefly his 
broader lines of economic legislation. 

Julian's prompt and decisive measures of palace 
reform, which have been already described, were 
probably dictated as much by philosophic aversion 
to luxury as by maxims of financial policy. Impor- 
tant as an economic reform, however, was his reg- 
ulation of the number of Imperial guards. He 
prescribed the rations to be allowed to those that 
attended his person, and stopped the distribution of 
supplies to those who ranked as supernumeraries. 14 
He issued a decree as to the distance from their 
quarters at which the pay of the soldiers on march 
was to begin. 15 But the economy which he seems to 
have most earnestly and effectually endeavoured to 
achieve was in connection with the Cursus Publicus 
or Public Post. 16 

From the early times of the Roman Empire, the 
maintenance of a good system of communication 
between the distant provinces and the capital had 
been a most essential requisite of orderly govern- 
ment. This necessity had led to the laying down of 
those magnificent roads which still seem to testify to 
us more powerfully than anything else which survives, 



Labours and Reforms. 255 

of the resolution of the Romans in their undertak- 
ings, and their persistency in accomplishment. But 
if our imagination would recall the appearance of 
these roads in the fourth century, it must people 
them with parties of travellers, hastening to transact 
their own business or that of the State, riding or driv- 
ing the animals most suited to the locality and to the 
object of the journey : oxen, horses, mules, camels, 
or asses ; and we must furnish those roads with 
convenient stages, some being mere halting-places 
for the change of beasts (mutationes) others accommo- 
dated with everything that a wearied or a luxurious 
traveller could desire to lighten the fatigues of his 
journey and ensure the comfort of his rest {man- 
siones). Now the maintenance of these halting-places, 
the constant supply of carriage-animals, of beasts of 
burden, and of food and drink for man and beast, 
necessarily involved very heavy expenses, which 
fell on the heads of the luckless Curiales. In earlier 
times, some of the stronger and more statesmanlike 
Emperors (notably Hadrian) had endeavoured to 
relieve the provinces of so intolerable a burden by 
ordering that the expenses of the cursus publicus 
should be defrayed from the Imperial fiscus. Before 
the time of which we are now treating, however, the 
burden had been relegated to the provincial authori- 
ties, and the testimony of historians and orators alike 17 
shows us how they groaned under it. It was felt to 
be the more galling in that those who were locally 
responsible derived little if any benefit from the 
arrangements they had to keep in working order. 
The postal system was, in the Roman Empire, not 



2 56 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

designed to facilitate the journeys of private persons, 
or the conveyance of their goods and letters. It 
was reserved for the use of those who held high posi- 
tions under the Imperial government and also, 
especially after the time of Constantine, for the 
rapid transfer of military bands and of all that apper- 
tained to the soldiery, including even wives and 
children. At the same time, the higher officials had 
the power, extensively used also by the Emperors 
themselves, of issuing free passes (evectiones) for 
distances of a certain length, which sometimes (trac- 
torice) even included free and comfortable accom- 
modation at the halting-places. When synods of 
bishops were frequently held, their use of these free 
passes was an object of bitter complaint. At the 
same time the Imperial agents who travelled to-and- 
fro on their journeys of inspection were often hated 
as spies, whose visits could well be dispensed with 
on other than economic grounds. And it is evident 
that under an emperor as easily swayed as Constan- 
tius, rapacious officials had ample opportunity both 
of obtaining means of travelling free of expense for 
themselves and their friends, and of diverting to 
private uses many of the provisions of animals, 
carriages, and various necessaries, destined to public 
purposes. 

This abuse of the public post-system, Julian, ac- 
cording to the testimony of both friends and foes, 
set himself energetically to correct. True, he con- 
tinued to grant free passes to the philosophic and 
other friends whom he invited to his Court, but this 
seems a legitimate and not excessive use of the Im- 



Labours and Reforms. 257 

perial right. The historian Socrates says : " The 
mode of public travelling and conveyance of neces- 
saries he also reformed, abolishing the use of mules, 
oxen, and asses for this purpose, and permitting 
horses only to be so employed. These various re- 
trenchments were highly lauded by some few, but 
strongly reprobated by all others, as tending to bring 
the Imperial dignity into contempt, by stripping 
it of those appendages of pomp and magnificence 
which exercise so powerful an influence over the 
mind of the vulgar." 18 Libanius 19 after drawing a 
hideous picture of the sufferings of overtaxed cities, 
delayed and angry travellers, and overworked beasts 
that fell dead when taken out of the yoke, says : 
"This disorder, also, Julian put a stop to, by pro- 
hibiting all posting that was not absolutely neces- 
sary, and by declaring licences of this kind equally 
dangerous to grant and to receive ; as well as by 
instructing his officers, some to keep beasts of their 
own, others to hire them when wanted." He goes 
on to say that from this time forward those who 
kept the public animals were obliged occasionally to 
give them exercise, — a proof of the cessation of over- 
work. 

But our best evidence of what Julian did to reform 
the system is to be found in those of his laws which 
afterwards formed part of the Theodosian Code. 
One of them, after complaining of the sufferings en- 
tailed by the frequent grants of evectiones by those 
who held the position of Vicar or of Prcesesoi a prov- 
ince, withdraws the power of granting such privi- 
leges from the lesser officials and restricts it to the 
17 



2 5 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

Praetorian Prsefects. The minor magistrates may 
have a limited number of evectiones, signed by the 
Emperor's own hand, but all use of the public con- 
veyances shall be strictly in pursuit of necessary 
business. The way in which provincial magistrates 
shall arrange for the transport of military stores is 
provided for, and care is taken that the extent of the 
license granted in an evectio shall not be widened 
through ambiguity in terms. The mancipes or con- 
tractors for public work, may use the cursus with the 
consent of the proconsul, but any use for private 
buildings is very strictly prohibited. 20 In Sardinia 21 
where the use of horses was not generally profitable 
and convenient, the provincials need no longer keep 
such in readiness, though vehicles for transport of 
stores must still be held at command. Those who 
want to ride must use their own horses. It is per- 
haps but fair to Julian's predecessors and successors 
to say that many of their laws seem to have been 
directed to the same objects. But his were so dras- 
tic in character, so numerous considering the short 
period of his rule, and apparently so effectual for a 
time, that we are justified in noting the reform of the 
postal system as a specially characteristic part of his 
domestic policy. 

The construction and maintenance of roads was 
not regulated on exactly the same principles as the 
public post. They existed for the benefit of the 
public, not of the government only. There were 
no tolls on the Roman roads, and the work of con- 
struction and repair seems to have been apportioned 
by lot to certain private persons, probably the land- 



Labours and Reforms. 259 

owners of the districts through which the roads 
passed. A law of Julian's demands such apportion- 
ment, and pronounces the responsibility to lie with 
the individuals to whom each part had been respec- 
tively assigned. 22 

But even when public works constructed on the 
scale of those of the Roman Empire are managed 
with a view to securing economy and good order, 
they must still require vast sums for their mainten- 
ance, and the demands on some classes are apt to 
become ruinously heavy. Julian's policy in assign- 
ing financial duties involved three principles of 
action : liberal concessions of immunity in case of 
real poverty : the granting of exemptions only to such 
persons, or classes of persons, as were most to be 
encouraged : and the strict insistence that none 
should escape such duties who could have ful- 
filled them, but who preferred to shift them off on 
to the shoulders of their neighbours. 

Among the concessions was one made to the 
Thracians, in answer to a petition from them. The 
Emperor in reply 23 explains that it would not be fair 
to the public that he should grant entire remission, 
but he promises that part of the tax shall go to 
maintain the military force which guarantees to the 
Thracians peace and security, and that for two 
periods, nothing shall be levied at all. He remits 
the excessive tribute demanded from the Jews, 24 and 
promises to try to induce their patriarch to lessen 
the burdens which his authority imposed upon them. 
The customary gift of golden crowns is no more to 
be demanded. The province of Africa is excused 



260 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

from the payment of arrears, 25 except such dues as 
consist of the precious metals. In one document 26 
the nature of the exemption granted is liberally 
defined. Those that were excused from the land-tax 
were also to be free from the payments in kind 
which went to make up what mediaeval lawyers 
called purveyance. The mutual claims of separate 
cities received the Emperor's attention ; thus Corinth 
was forbidden to gather unauthorised tribute from 
Argos. 26a 

Among the classes that received special exemption 
from ordinary payments were the highest, or official, 
who had long enjoyed it, 27 the physicians, 28 to whom, 
following here the footsteps of Constantine, he 
wished to accord special favour, and those government 
secretaries or clerks who had served in the offices 
for fifteen years, with the semi-military agentes in 
rebus who had accomplished a certain length of ser- 
vice, also citizens who had reared thirteen children, 
and soldiers who had served in ten campaigns. In 
general, however, Julian was most anxious to pre- 
vent the curial duties from becoming confined to an 
ever-diminishing class. His law forcing the Chris- 
tian clergy to fulfil their duties in this respect has 
already been cited. Honorary citizens who had 
accepted the franchise while still owing curial duties 
in other cities are not to be excused from the bur- 
dens of their new citizenship except under special 
circumstances. Particular care is to be directed to 
the nomination of substantial persons. It may be 
that in this way Julian aimed at the improvement of 
the municipal administration as well as at the regular 



Labours and Reforms. 261 

and equitable provision of funds. Libanius says 
that the desire to escape from municipal duties had 
made the governing bodies of some cities to resem- 
ble ragged and decrepit old women. 

A difficulty of another kind attended the appor- 
tioning and levying of taxes in country districts. 
Julian had to provide, as many mediaeval and even 
modern legislators have had to do since, that when 
land is sold or sublet, the State loses none of its 
dues. No man is allowed to contract himself out of 
payment of the land-tax. 29 

We have a good many laws on various matters 
which do not come strictly under the heads of jus- 
tice or public finance. We have the appointment 
of a tester to guarantee the quality of coins, where 
disputes arise as to buying and selling. There is 
also a law to give security to land-occupiers who have 
enjoyed possession for four months, 30 and one regu- 
lating the force of marriage contracts. 31 A curious 
law about funerals 32 might be regarded as belonging 
to his religious legislation. Funeral processions 
in the daytime, and the disturbance of graves or 
removal of ornaments therefrom are strictly for- 
bidden. We have already seen, and we shall have 
to observe again, the disgust and contempt that 
Julian felt for the custom of translating the bones 
of martyrs, and of making their shrines a kind of 
temple. The edict as to the appointment of profes- 
sors and schoolmasters, as we have it in the Code, 
is not specially directed against the Christians, and 
might be used by the Emperor to ensure the 
appointment of men of good character. 



262 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

In general we may say of Julian's legislation that 
although, in its main objects, it resembles that of 
such of his predecessors and successors as aimed at 
the alleviation of the evils from which the whole 
Empire was suffering, and to which it was doomed 
finally to succumb, yet it is notably distinguished by 
a very vigorous effort in the direction of retrench- 
ment and reform, an evident desire both to do jus- 
tice and to let it appear clearly that justice is being 
done, and a conscientious regard for the people 
whom he regarded as committed to his care. 

As we have mentioned Julian's measures for allevi- 
ating the oppressions felt by the Jews, we may here 
consider his general policy towards that people, with 
a very curious episode in his life, his attempt to re- 
store the city and temple of Jerusalem, and its re- 
markable frustration. Although we have references 
both to the enterprise and to its failure in the writings 
of Julian himself and a narrative of the affair in 
Ammianus, and in the Church historians and ora- 
tors, 33 yet some points require to be cleared up. 
According to Ammianus, he undertook the rebuilding 
of the Temple at great expense, and gave the con- 
duct of the scheme to his learned and trusted friend 
Alypius of Antioch, who had formerly superintended 
the government of Britain. 34 But although Alypius 
set vigorously to work with the assistance of the 
Rector of the province, the operations were speedily 
hindered by alarming globes of fire, which burst out 
close to the foundations of the building, rendering 
the prosecution of the work impossible and killing 
some of the workmen. The attempt was therefore 



Coins selected as illustrations /or Chapter V. 




Coin of Constans I. 
Reverse, Fel ix TEMPorum Reparatio. 
Constans and Victory on a ship. 




Coin of Antioch. 
Time of Diocletian. 



Coins selected as illustrations /or Chapter XI. 




Coin of Smyrna. 
Cybele on her throne. 



Coin of Tarsus. Imperial Times. 
Obverse, Tyche of city. Reverse, seated Zeus. 



Coins selected as illustrations /or Chapter VII. 



• ,; ■ 

Head of Isis. 
Pharia. 




, * * 



Coin of Nisibis. 
Tyche of city. 




Coin of Tarsus. 
Victory. 



Labours and Reforms. 263 

— — ^— — — — ' — ■ ■ »r; 

abandoned. When we compare this meagre account 
with other references or narratives, we see that very 
various views may be taken as to Julian's motives in 
the undertaking, the share of the Jews themselves 
in the enterprise, and the nature of the final catas- 
trophe. 

Julian's enemies saw in his attempt a blasphemous 
endeavour to prove the nullity of certain passages 
in the Prophets and the Gospels which would seem 
to imply that the restoration of the Temple was 
never to be accomplished. It seems, however, that 
only a very forced interpretation of those passages 
is consistent with this view, and that any such pre- 
dictions if drawn from the Old Testament might 
have condemned the enterprise in the eyes of the 
Jews as well as in those of Christians. Nor can 
Julian have been actuated by any great affection for 
the Jews themselves or any hope of " making them 
pagans " as one of the Church-historians says. But 
when we consider the light in which (as already 
shewn) he regarded the Jews and their religion, we 
seem to find a clue to our difficulty in the statement 
of Socrates : that he asked the Jews why they did 
not offer sacrifices according to the Mosaic ritual, 
and on being told that this ritual could only lawfully 
be followed at Jerusalem, he ordered them to set 
about rebuilding Solomon's Temple, and promised 
to defray the expenses himself. Now as we have 
seen, Julian objected to Judaism as a universal reli- 
gion, but thought it respectable and even admirable 
as a national cult; it was inferior to Hellenism, of 
course, as Jews were inferior to Greeks, but if it was 



264 J ulian , Ph ilosopher and Emperor, 

suited to the genius of the Jewish people, they were 
right in maintaining their traditional loyalty to it. 
Now if Judaism were once again localised and na- 
tionalised, it would take its proper place among the 
religions of the world. There need be no more fear 
of proselytism among the adherents of more civilised 
and enlightened systems, nor would the religion of 
Israel figure any longer as the forerunner of the 
religion of Christ. To restore to it those national 
and ritual accompaniments of which it had lately 
been deprived would make it cease to be a rival 
force against the new and purified Hellenism, while 
the difference between Jews and Christians would 
tend thereby to be accentuated. 

If this was Julian's idea, was the first attempt to 
realise it made by the Jews themselves, or how far 
did they co-operate ? The answer to this question 
is differently given in different accounts. It is cer- 
tain, however, that there had been a good deal of 
uneasiness and disaffection felt among the Jews. 
Very severe laws had lately been passed against any 
attempt at proselytism on their part, and they may 
well have hoped for some relief from an Emperor 
whose views differed so widely from those of Con- 
stantine and his sons. We know, too, from the 
letter already cited, that Julian had corresponded in 
a friendly way with the Jewish patriarch, whose 
name of Hillel he hellenises into IovXoS, and of 
whom he speaks as " my brother " — probably in 
reference to his own office of Pontifex Maximus. 
Most of the authorities tell us that the Jews were 
eager to help, both with labour and money, and if 



Labours and Reforms. 265 

this is so, the statement that the whole undertaking 
was to be at Julian's own expense needs some modi- 
fication. In his letter to the Jews, Julian says that 
he hopes, on his return from the Persian Wars, to 
see the holy city which will have been restored by 
his labours, and there, with them, to give thanks 
to the Most High. Meanwhile, he asks for their 
prayers. 

With regard to the catastrophe, the most probable 
hypothesis is that there was an earthquake, similar 
to many of which we read in not very distant regions 
about this time, with some kind of conflagration. 
As to the nature and also the exact place of the fire, 
our authorities are confused. The narrative of 
Gregory represents the flames as issuing from a sacred 
place to which people had fled in alarm at the tem- 
pest and the earthquake, and this has led to a conjec- 
ture 35 that in the confusion, a mob of Jews assaulted 
the Church of St. Helena, and were repelled with 
burning brands. In any case events and circum- 
stances were eminently favorable to the growth of 
an impressive and harrowing tale. Probably Julian 
was somewhat easily led to believe that the Powers 
were against his proposal. He referred to the event 
afterwards as an illustration of the mutability of 
earthly things. It were idle to speculate as to what 
might have been the result if he had persevered. 
But we cannot believe that the alliance between neo- 
Hellenism and reactionary national Judaism could 
possibly have been very firm, or of long duration. 

QFor designs of coins selected as illustrations for this chapter, seepage 262.) 



266 J uli an, Philosopher and Emperor. 



NOTES ON CHAPTER XI. 

1 See especially his Letter to Themistius. 

2 xxv, 4. 

3 c «> 583; King's translation, pp. 178-9. 

4 See Willems, Le droit pub lique Roman, pp. 611, 612, and authori- 
ties there cited. 

5 Cod. Theod., xi., 30. 

6 Cod. Theod., xi., 31. 

7 See his description of these vampires in xxx., 4. 

8 See Haenel, Leg. Imp. 

9 Cod. Theod., ii., 29., cf. Ammian., xxii., 6. 

10 Cod. Theod., iii., 1., 3. 

11 Cod. Theod., ii., 5., 1. 

12 Cod. Theod., v., 12., and xi., 16. 

13 See Schiller, iii., i. Sec. 6. 

14 Cod. Theod., vi., 24. 1. 

15 Cod. Theod., vii., 4. 

16 For the Roman system of Public Post, see Dr. E. E. Hude- 
raann's excellent little treatise Geschichte des Romischen Postwesens 
zvahrend der Kaiserzeit. 

17 See especially Ammianus, xix., 11, xxi., 16 ; Libanius, Epitaph. 
569, etc. 

18 iii., I., Bohn's translation. Hudemann (p. 144) thinks that this 
regulation tended to limit the use of the cursus veloxas distinct from 
the cursus clabularis. 

19 viii., 5., 12., ei sea. 

20 This explanation of viii., 5., 15., has been kindly given to me by 
Dr. J. S. Reid, who considers canalem to mean here a trench from 
which marble is cut. He suggests that the public contractors were 
often also engaged on private buildings, so that it would be hard to 
stop irregularities ; but commentators seem to take canalem as mean- 
ing a cross-road. 

21 viii., 5, 16. This law is sometimes attributed to Jovian. The 
change, as Hudemann shows, is to abolish the cursus velox, retain- 
ing the etirsus clabularis . 

22 xv., 3., 2. But the text is here doubtful and obscure. 

23 Ep. 47- 

24 Ep. 25. 

25 Cod. Theo., xi., 28. 



Notes on Chapter XI. 267 

26 xi., 12., 2. 

26a Ep. 35 : but on the authenticity and probable occasion of this 
letter, see Cumont, p. 21. 

27 xiii., 3., 4. ; vi., 27, 2. 

28 xii., 1., 55., 56. See xii., 1., 50, 56. 

29 xi., 3., 3- 

30 Symmachus 10. 39. (apud Haenel) 

31 Cod. Theod., iii., 13. 2. 

32 ix., 17, 5. 

33 For Julian's dealings with the Jews, and attempt to rebuild the 
Temple see Ep. 25, Fragm. Ep. 295, Am. Mar. xxiii., I., and all 
the Church historians, especially Socrates, iii., 20 ; Sozomen, v., 22, 
and (the marvellous element increasing like a snowball), Theodoret, 
iii., 20. Also Gregory Nazianzen, Second Invective, 4. 

34 Epp. 29 and 30 are addressed to Alypius. 

35 Of Mr. C. W. King. Julian the Emp. p. 88. Julian's rela- 
tions with the Jews and his attempt or project to rebuild the Temple 
are discussed in an able and interesting article by the Rev. Michael 
Adler in the Jewish Quarterly Review for July 1893. With regard to 
the general subject, Mr. Adler shows clearly that Julian must have 
been intimately acquainted with Jewish institutions and with the 
Hebrew Scripture, though not with the Hebrew language. He 
also shows, by quotations from the Talmud, that some of the 
arguments used by Julian against the Jews, formed part of the stock- 
in-trade of controversial Greek philosophers. As to the Temple : 
Mr. Adler's conclusion is that the rebuilding was merely contemplated, 
never actually taken in hand, and that the whole miraculous story 
(missing from contemporary Jewish writings, and from the Syriac 
account written in the sixth century) was a fiction of Gregory Nazi- 
anzen. . The question is certainly a difficult one, but though the 
passage in Julian's writings is interpreted by Mr. Adler consistently 
with his hypothesis, it is difficult for us to allow that Ammianus 
copied from Gregory. The absence not only of any record of the 
enterprise, but of any grateful recollection of Julian himself from con- 
temporary Jewish writings is a puzzling fact, and some writers, e.g. 
(Prof. Gwatkin) have thought they have found such recollections. 
We might suggest that the same historical conditions which, on Mr. 
Adler's theory, nipped in the bud the good-will and gratitude felt by 
the Jews towards Julian may also have silenced their tongues as to 
the unfortunate issue of his well-meant attempt on their behalf. 





Medal of Maximian. 

Obverse, Head of Maximian with attributes of Heracles. Reverse, three female 

figures with cornucopiae, signifying wealth. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LITERARY RECREATIONS. CONTROVERSY WITH 
THE CYNICS. 

didaodir 6 GeoS itai^Eiv. 

Convivium, 306, A. 



mu 



" Or let my lamp at midnight hour 

Be seen in some high lonely tower, 

Where I may oft out-watch the Bear, 

With thrice-great Hermes, or unsphere 

The spirit of Plato." Milton, II Penseroso. 

j|N studying Julian's relations to the 
philosophical and religious parties of 
his time and his labours in the camp 
and council - chamber, we become 
impressed with three facts as to his 
enterprises in the world of literature : 
first, that all through his life, and not 
ch more at one period than at any other, he is to 

268 




Literary Recreations. 269 

be regarded as a most industrious and prolific man 
of letters ; second, that all his literary labours were 
closely associated with the projects and the accom- 
plishments of his active life ; and third, that from the 
day on which he left Athens for Milan, literature 
was regarded by him as a recreation, noble and ele- 
vating it is true, and even worthy of great sacrifices 
of time and ease, but still as subordinate to the main 
business of his life. His delight in books and in lit- 
erary controversies seems to have been gratified 
chiefly during the hours that he stole from sleep. 
This fact, though creditable to him as a conscientious 
ruler, is not without some undesirable effects on his 
literary works. To most readers, they may smell of 
the lamp, and they certainly bear marks of haste. 
When we read that the Oration in Honour of 
Helios was composed in three nights, that the 
Oration against the Cynics was the work of two 
days, and that the Oration in Honour of the Mother 
of the Gods and that Against Heraclius the Cynic, 
were each finished in one night, we are aston- 
ished at the swiftness of his powers of thought 
and utterance. A calm and thorough treatment of 
his subject we cannot, under such circumstances 
expect to find. Perhaps we may console ourselves 
for the hastiness of the composition by reflecting 
that more time might have given scope for a more 
elaborately artificial style. Orations composed as a 
labour of love, and amid the stress of serious occupa- 
tions, bear at least the trace of not having been pro- 
duced by a mere orator. 

Considering the rapidity with which Julian wrote 



2 jo Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

or dictated, we can easily believe that many of his 
writings have not come down to us. Besides those 
that we possess, there are said to have been, along 
with other treatises, a narrative of his wars in 
Gaul, 1 and a Cronica* which some would identify 
with The Ccesars. Those which we have cannot 
all be precisely assigned to accurate dates. 3 There 
is little doubt, however, that it is to the period of 
his life with which we are now concerned, that we 
may attribute the most finished and elaborate of his 
works : The Ccesars, the Oration in Honour of the 
Mother, and most likely one at least of the ora- 
tions against the Cynics. 4 It was probably dur- 
ing the next year, at Antioch, that he wrote the 
other oration against the Cynics, as well as the anti- 
Christian writings already considered, and" the Mis- 
opogon, which we shall naturally consider in treating 
of his relations with the Antiochenes. His Oration 
in Honour of Helios may belong to either year. 
As we have already examined Julian's religious and 
philosophical opinions as indicated in his theological 
writings, we may now look at some of his writings on 
their literary side, though, as we shall see, morals and 
religion figure largely in all that we have from his 
hand. 

Besides his prose writings, we have a few little 
pieces of verse generally attributed to Julian, of 
which two only are of some interest. These two 
represent the Greek mind contemplating for the first 
time two institutions destined to become important 
in western civilisation, beer and the manual organ. 
Julian seems to have made the acquaintance of the 



Literary Recreations. 271 

favourite barbarian beverage during his residence in 
Gaul. He dislikes the smell of it, regards it as a poor 
substitute for the noble gift of vine-growing lands, 
and is inclined to attribute it to Demeter rather than 
to Dionysus. The wonder which he feels on behold- 
ing a musical instrument the pipes of which are 
metallic and the wind of which is supplied from 
leather bags instead of coming from a human chest, 
is significant and has afforded some light to the his- 
torians of the musical art. 5 

The Ccesars is a satire in prose written for the Sat- 
urnalia of the year 362. Its object is professedly 
playful, though to the modern taste the jesting may 
seem a little heavy, and the interest lies chiefly in 
the dramatic way in which the scenes and the persons 
are brought before us, and in the light thrown on 
Julian's views as to history, and his judgment on his 
predecessors on the Imperial throne. 

He imagines that Romulus or (to call him by his 
name after deification) Quirinus, when celebrating 
the Cronia, summons all the Gods to a banquet, and 
likewise all the Emperors of Rome. The Gods seat 
themselves on their resplendent thrones on Mount 
Olympus. The Caesars have their feast prepared in 
the regions about the moon. The Gods sit and ob- 
serve the Caesars as they enter. Silenus places him- 
self next to Dionysus, to whom he acts as a peda- 
gogue, and makes jocular remarks throughout. In 
fact he is represented as a kind of court-jester to the 
Gods, and his fooling constitutes the comic element 
of the piece. 

The Caesars approach one by one. First comes 



272 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

Julius, whom Silenus taunts with an ambition that 
would fain dethrone Zeus himself, and with a bold- 
ness equal to the jester's own. Next Octavian, 
changing colour and demeanour like a chameleon, 
and trying to captivate Aphrodite and the Graces, 
till Apollo turns him over to the typical Stoic phi- 
losopher Zeno, to be made into a sensible man. 
Then Tiberius, fierce and foul, before whom Silenus 
brings up some of his evil deeds. Caligula wears 
the aspect of a wild beast, and is seized by Dike and 
given over to the Furies for punishment. Claudius 
is twitted by Silenus as being a nobody without his 
freedmen and his wife. Nero comes in imitating 
Apollo with cithara and laurel, but is speedily dis- 
graced by that indignant god. Vindex, Otho, Galba, 
and Vitellius rush in amid wild confusion, thickening 
the air with the smoke of burning temples and cities, 
till Zeus and Sarapis order Vespasian to go and 
quench the conflagration. Of Vespasian's two sons, 
Titus is allowed to sport with Aphrodite ; Domitian 
is chained with a collar as a dog. Against Nerva, 
Silenus has no objections to make, but he grumbles 
at the Gods for allowing to so good a ruler such a 
short reign. Zeus, however, promises a succession 
of better emperors. Trajan enters, carrying his tro- 
phies. Then Hadrian playing the lyre and busying 
himself with many things. Antoninus Pius is ral- 
lied by Silenus on his stinginess. Marcus Aurelius 
and Lucius Verus enter in fraternal harmony. Even 
Silenus is moved with respect, though he has a word 
of criticism for the indulgence shown by Marcus to 
his wife and his son. Commodus stumbles and 




PRIMITIVE ORGAN. 



Literary Recreations. 273 

falls, unable to follow the path of the heroes. Per- 
tinax enters bewailing his sad fate. Dike bestows 
her pity on him, but blames his share in the con- 
spiracy against the son of Marcus. It is noteworthy 
that the next Emperor, Didius Julianus, receives no 
mention. His name was one that the present Em- 
peror had no wish to preserve from oblivion. Sev- 
erus comes in looking so fierce and stern as to crush 
all the mirth out of Silenus. His sons are sum- 
moned to justice by Minos. Geta is admitted, but 
Caracalla sent away to punishment. The blood- 
stained Macrinus and the effeminate Heliogabalus 
are forced to fly. Alexander Severus seats himself 
apart and laments his misfortune, while Silenus ral- 
lies him on his leaving everything in his mother's 
hands. Valerian enters with his prison-chains about 
him, Gallienus luxurious in apparel and effeminate 
in countenance. Both of these are prohibited by 
ZeUs from coming to partake of the banquet. Claud- 
ius (who, as we have seen, was Julian's ancestor) is 
received with acclamations, and the throne is prom- 
ised to his posterity after him. Aurelian appears 
flying from those who would have him tried for his 
severities before the tribunal of Minos, but Helios 
(who had been a special object of his veneration) in- 
terposes, declaring that he has sufficiently expiated 
his violent deeds. Probus receives honour as a 
builder of many cities, but Silenus reads him a 
little lecture against over-harshness. Carus and 
his sons are driven away by Dike. Diocletian 
comes in attended by Maxim ian and his son, and 

by the older Constantius, who treats him with a 
18 



2 74 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

reverence which he declines to accept. He gives all 
his baggage, however, into their hands, that he may 
walk unencumbered. The Gods approve the harmo- 
nious union of the company, but Maximian is 
chased away on account of his impurity. Licinius 
is turned out by Minos, Constantine seats himself 
and keeps his throne for a long time, and his sons 
come in after him. Magentius is rejected because 
what good he has effected has not been done from 
good motives. 6 

On the completion of the company, Hermes pro- 
poses, and Zeus approves, a trial of strength among 
the Caesars. Romulus is anxious to have one of 
them selected to receive divine honours. At the 
request of Heracles, Alexander the Great is ad- 
mitted to the competition. As no one makes way 
for him, he takes the vacant seat of Caracalla. A 
discussion thereupon arises between Silenus and 
Romulus as to the relative merits of this one Greek 
and of all the Romans. Romulus asserts that his 
descendants honour Alexander above all other stran- 
gers, but not above all their own heroes. 

The method of the trial is next discussed, and it is 
decided that, as in ordinary Greek sports, the prize 
shall be adjudged to the victor of those who have in 
their turn vanquished the others, so that not all need 
contend in one heat. Accordingly chosen cham- 
pions are called out. Alexander has been already 
summoned to the contest. Hermes calls up three 
other great conquerors, Julius Augustus, and Tra- 
jan. At the request of Cronos, Marcus Aurelius is 
added, to represent philosophy. He obeys the call, 



Literary Recreations, 275 

approaching with dignified mien, his personal beauty 
undiminished by the traces of his heavy labours or 
by the simplicity of his attire. Dionysus would also 
admit a man of pleasure. Zeus will not allow such 
an one to enter the sacred precincts, but Constantine 
is allowed to come to the entrance. These cham- 
pions are now called upon each to make a speech in 
his own behalf, after which the Gods, who love truth 
above persuasiveness, are to submit them to a more 
searching examination. A water-clock is to limit 
the time allowed to each one's oration. Finally 
Hermes utters a metrical summons to the lovers of 
glory, of wisdom, and of pleasure, the lots are cast, 
and Julius Caesar begins the day. Caesar seems to 
regard Alexander as his special rival. Accordingly 
he boasts the superiority of his conquests, showing 
especially how much more formidable a rival was 
Pompeius than Darius. He compares his lesser wars 
with the great ones of Alexander, and contrasts his 
own forbearance with Alexander's violence. Alex- 
ander retorts angrily that though Caesar disparages 
him, it was from him that example had been taken 
in Caesar's career. He speaks slightingly of Pom- 
peius, shows how he had not, like Caesar, taken up 
arms without cause against his country ; proves the 
superiority of Greeks to Romans by pointing to the 
embarrassment caused to Rome by ^Etolia ; taunts 
the Romans with not having conquered the Per- 
sians ; claims for himself the honours of a follower of 
Heracles ; and justifies his severities in the camp ex- 
cept in a few cases of violence where the deeds had 
been followed by " the saving goddess " Repentance. 



2 j6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

Augustus, against whom Poseidon bears a grudge, 
and who is consequently stinted of water for his time- 
measure, extols, when his turn comes, his conclusion 
of the Civil Wars, his friendship for philosophers, 
his restorative measures in the State, and his mod- 
eration in keeping the Empire within its due limits, 
and in withstanding temptations both to ambition 
and to self-indulgence. Trajan, blustering in speech 
(since he had been accustomed to leave oratorical 
displays to others), points to his Getic and Parthian 
Wars, the latter of which time had not permitted 
him to finish. Silenus reminds him of the length 
of his reign in comparison with that of Alexander. 
Stung by his jest, Trajan makes a fresh start, and 
appeals to the fact that his most vigorous actions 
have always been tempered by clemency. This is 
allowed to be in his favour by the opinion of the 
Gods. When Marcus begins to speak, Silenus pre- 
pares to hear some sophistical quibbles, but in this 
he is disappointed. The philosophic Emperor makes 
no speech, but commends himself to the judgment 
of the Gods, as to those who are already entirely 
acquainted with all his actions. Constantine, know- 
ing himself to have preferred, in life, the allurements 
of ease and pleasure to the claims of justice, is for a 
while afraid to compare his deeds with those that 
have just been recited. On being obliged to speak, 
however, he boasts the superiority of his achieve- 
ments over those of Alexander, in that he has fought 
against nobler races of men, over those of Octavian 
because of the more pernicious character of the 
tyrants he has destroyed, and over those of Trajan 



Literary Recreations, 277 

since he has again subdued the lands that Trajan 
had conquered. The silence of Marcus he interprets 
as giving consent to those claims. Silenus puts him 
to the blush by comparing his accomplishments with 
the artificial basket-gardens that were carried in pro- 
cession at the festival of Adonis, but had no per- 
manent root or vitality. 

In order to eliminate the effects of fortune from 
the achievements of the Caesars, the Gods institute 
an inquiry into the ruling principles of the lives of 
each. Alexander confesses that his object has been to 
conquer all, but Silenus accuses him of having fallen 
a slave to wine and to his own passions. The hero 
vainly tries to save his reputation by logical quibbles. 
Caesar's object was in all things to be first. But he 
failed, Silenus says, in gaining the love of the people. 
That of Augustus was to rule well, which he ex- 
plains, on being pressed, as meaning to rule for- 
tunately. Silenus taunts him with being a great idol 
manufacturer, in that he had begun the apotheosis of 
the emperors. Trajan's aim in life had been the 
same as that of Alexander ; but he had suffered him- 
self to be overcome by pleasures. That of Marcus 
was to imitate the Gods ; not, as he is made to ex- 
plain, by living on nectar and ambrosia, but by fol- 
lowing the divine reason, by contenting himself with 
little, and by doing good to as many as possible. 
When Silenus brings up his unwise treatment of his 
wife and son, he appeals to the authority of Homer 
as to the kindness due to a wife and the indulgence 
shown by Zeus to his son Ares ; he adds that he 
could not tell what an evil disposition Commodus 



2 yS Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

would develop, and that the honours conferred on 
him and on Faustina were merely customary. The 
object of Constantine had been to obtain for him- 
self and his friends as much enjoyment as possible. 
Silenus accuses him of wishing to become a money- 
changer and ending in the trade of a cook and barber, 
and he is again put to a shameful silence. 

After deliberation, the Gods award the palm to 
Marcus, but all the Caesars are to be honourably dis- 
missed, and each may choose a tutelary deity as 
his special protector. On hearing this, Alexander 
chooses Heracles, and Trajan runs after him ; Oc- 
tavian turns to Apollo, Marcus to Zeus and Cronos. 
Csesar, vacillating, is chosen and patronised by Ares 
and Aphrodite. Constantine fails to find in any of 
the Gods the image of the life he desires. He fol- 
lows after Wantonness, who leads him to Intemper- 
ance, and, followed by his sons, he seeks from the 
Founder of the new religion the purification which 
the older and sterner Gods would deny. The Gods 
would persecute him, but Zeus spares him, in con- 
sideration of his ancestors Claudius and Constantius, 
and grants to Julian himself the perpetual protection 
of Mithras. 

A sketch like the foregoing gives an inadequate 
notion of the character of this little piece, which 
shows considerable dramatic power, besides spirit in 
conception and facility in expression. The bitter- 
ness against Constantine, as well as the somewhat 
unkind treatment of some previous emperors, is an 
indulgence allowed under the satiric form of the 
composition, yet it cannot be regarded as creditable 



Controversy with the Cynics. 2 79 

to Julian's fairness, especially as Constantine does 
not figure in history as a mere votary of self-interest 
and pleasure. There can be no doubt, however, 
that Julian regarded the recognition of Christianity 
as the opening of a door to all manner of licentious- 
ness, and his severity towards the memory of his 
uncle is due to this opinion. The idea of the whole 
and the way in which it is executed shows a re- 
markably vivid realisation of history on the part of 
Julian, who always felt, so to speak, on close and 
familiar terms with great men of bygone days. An- 
other characteristic feature is the modern, almost 
Christian standard of virtue acknowledged in the 
stress laid on the clemency of Trajan, the philan- 
thropy of Marcus, and the penitence of Alexander. 
The point which naturally surprises us, in relation to 
the known views of Julian on such subjects, is the 
liberty taken with the names and even the person- 
alities of the Gods. That Silenus should be made 
to act as a buffoon, and that Dionysus should not 
always appear dignified, is no matter for wonder, but 
though certain of the Gods, especially Zeus and 
Cronos, are treated with some respect, yet at least 
one jest is levelled at the " father of gods and men." 
This attitude of men towards the pagan pantheon is, 
of course, familiar to us in satiric and comic writers 
of the best classical period, but it is not in accord- 
ance with Julian's views as expressed elsewhere. We 
must not, however, regard the power of jesting with 
sacred symbols as inconsistent with respect for their 
authority. There was much fooling with the con- 
ceptions of sacred lore in the mediaeval " ages of 



280 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

faith." Of all the faculties and proclivities of the 
human mind, none vary so much from age to age in 
their quality and mode of expression as do the sense 
of reverence and the sense of humour. If some of 
Julian's jests seem to us ponderous, it does not fol- 
low that he entirely lacked Attic salt. And if his 
treatment of divine beings would seem to us irrev- 
erent, we may not conclude that he had not a pro- 
found respect for the objects of his worship. 

As to the source whence Julian derived the plot 
of his little play, Dr. Miicke would regard the first 
part as suggested by the wall-scene of the Third 
Book of the Iliad, and the second part by the com- 
petition between ^Eschylus and Euripides in The 
Frogs of Aristophanes. But the plan of introducing 
historical personages into rhetorical compositions 
and moralising under cover of their names, was, as 
we have seen, a favourite one among the literary 
men of that age, and one to which Julian was likely 
to feel attracted. 

The two orations against the Cynics, while bear- 
ing marks of hasty composition, and of some bitter 
feeling against opponents whose influence seemed 
detrimental to the interests of religion and philoso- 
phy, are full of interest, both in showing us Julian's 
attitude of mind towards various philosophical sects 
and practical questions of his day, and in throwing 
some light on a curious and little-studied school of 
thinkers and moralists. 

Julian's seventh oration Against the Cynic Hera- 
cliiis, deals with the question " Is it consistent with 
Cynicism to make use of allegories or myths ? " 



Controversy with the Cynics, 281 

From his own account, Julian had felt his indigna- 
tion aroused in listening to a discourse from a wan- 
dering Cynic teacher, who was telling stories of a 
kind that tended to diminish the reverence in which 
the names and persons of the Gods were held among 
men. He consequently examines into the uses and 
abuses of the parabolic or allegoric method of treat- 
ing religious and moral subjects, showing how such 
a concession to human weakness is contrary to the 
original idea of so stern a system as that of the 
Cynics, and how, when it is used, it should always 
be as a means of religious education. Some of the 
principles he lays down are hardly in accordance, at 
first sight, with his own practice in the composition 
of The Ccesars. But, as we have said, it is difficult 
for us to judge of the feelings towards the Divinity 
expressed in that piece. It is evident that what 
Julian most dreaded and disliked was the represen- 
tation of the Gods under a purely human form, or 
the assumption on behalf of actual known men of 
the attributes and names of divine beings. And in 
The Ccesars the all-seeing, superhuman powers of the 
Gods are exhibited, as far as is possible, in the form 
of a tale. The oration against Heraclius contains a 
model-story by Julian himself, setting forth his own 
mission as he conceived it, a story that is written in 
pleasing and tasteful style, and that one may imagine 
to have been produced earlier, for a private circle of 
friends, and brought in here by way of illustration. 
He describes the estate of a rich, avaricious, and 
careless land-owner, on whose death there had been 
a general scramble for his possessions, disgraced by 



282 ^Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

bloodshed, marriage of near relatives, and spoliation 
of temples. In this grievous state of things, which 
represents, of course, the Empire after the death of 
Constantine, Zeus appeals to Helios, and they call 
the Fates to take counsel with them. It may be 
noticed that Julian here makes the Fates subservient 
to Zeus, while Helios is almost equal to him, and 
acts as a ready executor of his decrees. The decision 
is reached that a little neglected nephew of the rich 
man shall be rescued from the general destruction, 
and placed under the special charge of Helios and 
Athene. But when this child is grown to early 
manhood, he is overpowered by the sense of the 
family miseries and longs to hide himself in Tar- 
tarus. Now, however, Athene and Helios cause a 
deep sleep to fall upon him, and in a vision Hermes 
conducts him by a rugged path into a fair flowing 
plain, and thence to a high mountain where dwells 
the Father of the Gods. Hermes then vanishes, 
and the boy beseeches Zeus, — whether that name or 
any other is best pleasing to him, — to show him the 
way to himself. Helios then appears, and the youth, 
in an ecstasy of joy and devotion, vows that he will 
ever follow the service of that deity. He is found 
to be but imperfectly armed, yet Helios and Athene 
tell him that he must return to earth, to accomplish 
the task assigned to him. He is prepared for the 
task by initiation, and by a vision of his kinsman 
indulging in ease while his possessions are being 
wasted by knavish herdsmen. Helios prepares to 
set the boy in his kinsman's place. At first he en- 
treats to be spared the labours of such a position, 



Controversy with the Cynics, 28 



o 



but on being threatened with divine displeasure, he 
promises loyal obedience. Hermes returns to act as 
his homeward guide. Athene gives him three part- 
ing counsels : never to prefer a flatterer to a friend ; 
to be watchful against hypocrites ; and to honour 
the Gods and godlike men. Then Helios comes 
forward with a final exhortation. He enjoins the 
boy to use his friends as friends, not as mere ser- 
vants ; to love his subjects as the Gods love him ; to 
trust in the divine power always working with him ; 
and never to minister to his own fleshly desires or to 
those of other people. He is to receive a torch 
from Helios, so that the divine light may keep him 
from desiring the things of earth ; a helmet and 
aegis from Athene, and a golden staff from Hermes. 
After a last injunction to be faithful, Helios dis- 
misses him with the promise that if he is true to his 
purpose, and uses his body as an instrument to that 
end, respecting his soul as immortal, he shall at last 
become as a god, and be admitted to the vision of 
the Father. 

The last part of the oration, which is very rambling 
in style, is devoted to the same object as the sixth 
oration To the Unmannerly Dogs, wherein he tries 
to convict the Cynics of his own day of a falling 
off from the moral greatness of the founders of the 
sect. 

The philosophers whom Julian attacks might be 
called Neo-Cynics, as others of the day are Neo- 
Platonists and Neo-Pythagoreans, for Cynicism, like 
other philosophical systems, had taken a new lease 
of life, and tried to adapt itself to changed condi- 



284 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

tions, when Greek thought and life had interpene- 
trated the moral and intellectual organisation of the 
Roman Empire. 7 Originally, the sect was Pre- 
Socratic, but though the founder of the School, 
Antisthenes, had struck out his particular line of 
thought before he became acquainted with the great 
Athenian, yet he seems to have discerned in the 
teachings of Socrates all that he had taught and 
more besides, and to have been ready to merge his 
pupils and his doctrine in those of a nobler and 
wider teacher. But the phase of Socratism which 
he represented was distinct enough to form the 
nucleus of a special school, and the remarkable per- 
sonality of Diogenes emphasised yet more strongly 
its peculiar practical characteristics. Of these two 
and of Crates, the third among the leaders of the 
early Cynics, Julian speaks with great respect, and 
in order to understand his relations to them and to 
their degenerate successors, we may trace very 
briefly the character of their doctrine in its origin 
and its decline. 

Unlike other schools of Greek philosophers, the 
Cynics had no theory of nature or of human life, 
and they despised all thought that did not bear 
fruit in action. Their root-idea may be summed up 
in one word : self-sufficiency (avrapHEia). In Greek 
history we are constantly familiarised with the polit- 
ical principle that each state should be able to pro- 
vide its own necessaries, luxuries, and means of 
defence. This idea of self-dependence, transported 
from the sphere of politics to that of individual life, 
becomes the corner-stone of Cynic morality. If 



Controversy with the Cynics. 285 

analysed, it is found to involve several far-reaching 
consequences. It reduces to a minimum the goods 
to be considered necessary for life and happiness. 
The Cynic can dispense with a comfortable home 
and warm clothing, and all but the simplest food 
and drink. He must be free from all the vices that 
tend to weaken mind and body. Again, Cynicism 
involves independence of the ties of nationality and 
of social conventions. Diogenes, who first adopted 
the designation uo(j^07T6kir?]$, said boldly that the 
wise man was not bound by the laws of the state 
but by those of virtue. His motto, many times 
cited by Julian, napaxocpa^ov to vojdKTjua (" forge " 
or probably " countermark money "), is a pregnant 
one, and it is natural to suppose that these words, 
imperfectly understood, may have given rise to 
the whole story of the forgery and punishment of 
Diogenes in his early days. 8 It has been conjec- 
tured 9 that they may refer to the practice of striking 
afresh with the proper die of a State the coins 
brought into it from abroad, in order to proclaim 
their legal value. This signification would agree 
excellently with the interpretation given by Julian, 10 
but whether the literal application is to the coining, 
the forgery, or the countermarking of money, the 
meaning evidently is that no established usages, 
however high their traditional authority, are to be 
accepted as binding on the philosopher until they 
have obtained his individual assent and received the 
stamp of his approving reason and conscience. 

As might be naturally expected, the Cynics cared 
little for art and literature and still less for meta- 



286 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

physical speculations. Books were worthless to 
them in comparison with the principles stored in the 
mind ; difficult questions were best solved by prac- 
tice ; abstruse terms had no significance to those 
who cared only for practical life. Their contempt 
for tradition and authority extended to matters of 
religious belief and observance. The early Cynics 
were not atheists, but they ridiculed the popular 
mythology, held aloof from national rites, and de- 
nounced prophets and soothsayers as contemptible 
charlatans, while they received with a scornful scep- 
ticism all suggestions of a world after death. Thus 
Diogenes, in words quoted with approval by so re- 
ligious a Hellenist as Julian, asked a youth who de- 
sired initiation into the mysteries : " Thinkest thou 
that in Hades the initiated publicans will enjoy 
bliss, while Epaminondas and Agesilaus are wallow- 
ing in the mire?" The idea that righteousness of 
life is necessary in a man who would enjoy the Di- 
vine favour is strongly maintained by the leading 
Cynics, and it may have disposed many noble-minded 
men to regard them with indulgence while feeling 
both repugnance and fear at their general destruc- 
tive tendencies. Their chief merit is their respect 
for reality and hatred of cant in every form. Antis- 
thenes, like Socrates, insisted on definitions of terms 
in common use, and ridiculed some of the extrava- 
gances of popular democracy. In their dealings 
with their neighbours, the influence of the Cynics 
tended to sweep away unmeaning distinctions and 
to clear up the mists of prejudice. They despised, 
or affected to despise, the verdict of the vulgar, yet 




A POET, OR PHILOSOPHER. 

IVORY DIPTYCH. 



Controversy with the Cynics. 287 

respected human nature as capable of achieving the 
highest excellence. Diogenes declared that virtuous 
men are the best likenesses of the Deity. 

The third of the Cynics, Crates, though by no 
means an attractive character as depicted by Dio- 
genes Laertius, seems to have been a man of singu- 
larly noble and upright life, if we may judge by 
some details given by Julian " as well as from some 
verses of his, cited both by Julian and by Clement 
of Alexandria. 12 His prayer was that he might have 
enough of the necessaries of life to be free from ser- 
vile anxiety, that he might be useful, not merely 
agreeable, to his friends ; and that his treasure 
might not be of material things, like that of a beetle 
or an ant, but of righteousness, from which he might 
offer sacrifices to Hermes and the Muses. He had 
given up all his property, and passed his time in 
trying to reconcile enmities and feuds among his 
friends. 

Few, however, of the Cynics of the succeeding 
generation approached within a measurable distance 
of the moral elevation of Crates. For a considera- 
ble space of time, there seems to have been no men 
of note belonging to the school, and meantime what 
was most admirable in their teaching had become 
the possession of another sect, that of the Stoics. 
The doctrine of the Porch strongly resembles that 
of the Cynosarges, but toned down, and made more 
compatible with social order and intellectual culture. 
Not that the Stoics confined their efforts to a miti- 
gation of Cynic doctrine by the negative process of 
eliminating its harsher elements. Rather may they 



288 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

be said to have penetrated to its central idea and to 
have given it a wider and grander significance. The 
aim of both sects was the same : " to live according 
to Nature " ; but while the Cynic referred all things 
to his own individual nature, his wants, preferences, 
and idiosyncrasies, the Stoic rose to the conception 
of a universal nature embraced by one undeviating 
law, to the authority of which all individuals, whether 
Gods or men, must be subservient, save only the 
supreme law-giver Zeus. And while cosmopolitanism 
in the Cynic sense probably meant little more than 
a capacity for living under very diverse conditions 
and for regarding men in general apart from their 
nationality, the genuine Stoic felt his citizenship 
with all men on earth who were with himself mutu- 
ally dependent on the kind offices one of another, 
and bound with him in obedience to the common 
law of Nature. 

Accordingly when Cynicism again lifts its head in 
the first century of our era, it appears as a kind of 
left wing of Stoicism. The raison-d } etre of Neo- 
Cynicism is to be found in the need of a practical 
protest against the novelties and the follies of a 
superficial and highly conventionalised society. The 
best representative of the school (who, however, is 
not mentioned by Julian), Demonax the Cypriote, 13 
was a friend of Epictetus, and the Cynic Deme- 
trius was friendly with Seneca. One of the disserta- 
tions of Epictetus 14 shows the very respectful 
attitude towards Cynicism taken by the best of the 
later Stoics. The philosopher is here arguing with 
a youth who, in his enthusiasm for the Cynics, thinks 



Controversy with the Cynics. 289 

of adopting their mode of life. The tone of Epic- 
tetus is like that of a pious Catholic towards an eager 
aspirant after the monastic life. He tries to show the 
young man how great is the honour at which he is 
aiming, and induces him to think well before com- 
mitting himself to a course which may prove beyond 
his moral strength to attain. For a Cynic who has 
no dark corners in his life should be as pure as sun- 
light in all his thoughts and ways, and his function 
towards his fellow-men is to act as a messenger sent 
from Zeus to guide them into the paths of virtue. 

Now between the time of Epictetus and that of 
Julian, Cynicism had had about two and a half cen- 
turies in which to degenerate. The whole system 
lent itself with peculiar ease to caricature, and it was 
ever likely to attract followers from among those 
who regarded it chiefly as a means of emancipation 
from social restraint and who developed to a high 
degree its most repugnant features. And these cer- 
tainly were very unamiable. As Julian well says, 16 
Cynicism is like a noble city, abounding in sacred 
temples and stately houses, whence everything that 
might excite disgust or suggest meanness and squalor 
had been ejected without the gates, so as to greet 
the traveller on his approach. And apart from the 
essential ugliness of their system, Julian had some 
special grounds of dislike against the Cynics of his 
day. Heraclius, against whom he wrote Oration VII., 
seems to have shown a servile deference to Constan- 
tius and an absence of regard for Julian himself. 
He had also, following the fashion of the Cynic 
QEnomaus, controverted the religious beliefs of 



290 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

those who adhered to the Hellenic worships, and 
used scurrilous language on subjects that lay very 
near to Julian's heart. He regards the Cynics as 
playing into the hands of the Christians, and as fol- 
lowing the fashion of those Christian ascetics who had 
won glory for themselves and support from their co- 
religionists by affecting a mode of life superior in 
sanctity to that of the vulgar. At the same time, he 
regards this assumption as a mere pretext to hide 
luxurious and unrestrained habits indulged in private. 
And finally, as a Neo-Platonist, Julian felt no sympa- 
thy with the Cynic tendency to depreciate all culture 
and to set aside all traditions of the past. But 
since his own morality was, as we have seen, entirely 
of the Stoic type, he shows the same reverence as 
does Epictetus for the pure and uncorrupted princi- 
ples of the original Cynic code, and for the charac- 
ters of the three great Cynics. The special function 
of Cynicism is, he says, to teach by deeds, as other 
philosophers did by words, how it is possible to 
scorn convention and live according to the simple 
dictates of Nature. But the Cynics of his day are 
false to their mission. They keep the outward garb 
of the sect, yet they indulge their lowest appetites, 
truckle to those in power, use smooth words to cap- 
tivate the vulgar, instead of giving the warning bark 
of the watch-dog, and, worst of all, they speak with 
impious license against the Gods. In vigorous and 
earnest language, Julian exhorts them to examine 
and see whether they have sufficiently overcome the 
" many-headed monster " within to be able safely to 
set all human conventions at defiance. If they have 



Controversy with the Cynics, 291 

a hankering desire after the good things of this life, 
they should avoid touching them even with the 
finger-tips. Let no one be so bold as to neglect 
outward decency, as Diogenes did, till he has shown 
himself equal to Diogenes in all his nobler qualities. 
For it is not the coarse cloak, the wallet, and the 
staff that make the Cynic, but rational discourse 
and a well regulated life. 

In the course of his discussion, Julian dwells on 
certain principles which have been already shown to 
lie at the basis of his whole system of thought and 
morals — the essential unity of all philosophy ; its 
practical aim ; the obligation to live above-board 
and to have no secret corners in the soul wherein 
unworthy desires and thoughts may lie concealed 16 ; 
and beyond all, the need of an infinite aspiration 
after a Divine life to enable men to live purely and 
bravely on this earth. 

Although Julian regards the Cynics as leagued 
against him with the Christians, we find, in the 
Christian Fathers the almost unanimous expression 
of a sentiment closely corresponding to that of the 
Emperor, as to the disgusting boldness and con- 
temptible charlatanry of the wandering Cynic teach- 
ers. True, the Fathers themselves many of them 
forged weapons against pagan superstitions from 
the material provided by the destructive works of 
CEnomaus and others. Yet Justin, 17 Chrysostom, 18 
and Augustine 19 cite the Cynics as examples of 
shamelessness and hypocrisy. In times a little later, 
we find them associated, in the minds of a few 
writers, with some early Christian communities of 



292 yuliarii Philosopher and Emperor. 

ascetics, nor is it impossible that there may have 
been some intercourse between such Christian com- 
munities. But to trace the subsequent history of 
Cynicism, and the relation of Pagan to Christian 
asceticism lies far beyond our present task. The 
controversy between Julian and the Cynics illustrates 
the many varieties of schools and intellectual ten- 
dencies with which the Emperor was at various 
times brought in contact, and also his worthy ambi- 
tion, in the case of all non-Christian sects, except 
perhaps the Epicurean, to do justice to the elements 
of truth contained in their teaching, while guarding 
against all dangers of extravagance and one-sidedness 
in thought and action. 




Reverse to medal of Constantine. 
Seated figure receiving a trophy 
and gifts. 




Constantine the Great. 
Bronze medallion. 



Notes on Chapter XIL 293 

NOTES ON CHAPTER XII. 

1 Zosimus, iii., 2. 

2 Or. iv., 157, C. 

3 For the chronology of Julian's writings, see the pamphlet of 
Schwarz which I have frequently cited, pp. 6-15. 

4 See Libanius, Epit,, 574. Schwarz thinks that Or. vi. must have 
been composed at midsummer, and so before he left Constantinople, 
from a reference to the solstice in p. 181. But the proof does not seem 
to me conclusive. 

5 Version of Julian's epigram on the Organ (given by E. A. G.) : 

Strange reeds are these ; surely it is a crop 
Wild-springing from another " brazen field." 
No human breath that shakes them, but the blast. 
Springing from leathern cave, is led along 
Beneath the roots of various pierced reeds. 
And a skilled player, nimble of his hands, 
Touches the rods that commune with the pipes 
And lightly dance and so press out the tune. 
(Cf. Hopkin and Rimbault, History of the Organ, p. 15.) 

6 It seems rather strange that there should be no mention of Ga- 
lerius, and that Magnentius should be placed among the lawful 
Emperors. 

7 See an interesting monograph by Bernays, Lucian und die Cyni- 
ker, published as an Introduction to his translation into German of 
the Death of Peregrinus. 

8 See his biography, by Diogenes Laertius. 

9 For this suggestion I am indebted to Prof. P. Gardner, who was 
led to the supposition from his studies of numismatics. 

10 Especially in Or. vi., 188 ; and Or. vii., 211. 

11 Especially in Or. vi., 201. 

12 Stromata, ii., 492. Jul., Or. vi., 199. 

13 See the very charming life of Demonax, attributed to Lucian, but 
probably not from the same pen that wrote the Death of Peregrinus. 

14 III., 22. 

15 Or. vi., 186, 187. 

16 For the idea as to the absence of all need for secrecy in a well 



294 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

regulated life, compare the first of the new letters in the Mavpo- 
yop8dreio$ /3tj3A.ioQ^H?/. 

17 See his Second Apology . He calls the Cynic Crescens, qnAoipcxpo's, 
qn\6yio}iito < s i and (piXodot-oS. 

18 Homily xvii. 

19 De Civ. Dei, (lib., xiv.). 





Coins of Antioch. 
A Goddess in her Temple. Tyche of the City. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

JULIAN AND THE ANTIOCHENES. 1 

362-3. 

firjitoTE ovv, go <piA.e, vo/uid^S sivai ZhsvOspoS, cx-XP 1 ^ ov 
ya6rr}p <xpx El 6° v • . . o'i te tov rcapadxsiv rd itpoS 
rjdorfjv uai ravra ditoHooXvdai uvpioi, nai si tovtoov Se 
ysvozo HpsiTTGov, egoS olv dovXsvyS rai&TGOv itoXXaoy So^cciZ, 
ovitoo zrji EAsvQEpicti sQiysS, ovds sysvdoo tov rsKrapoS. 

Julian, Or. vi., 196, C. 

How happy is he born and taught 
That serveth not another's will — 



Whose passions not his masters are, 

Whose soul is still prepared for death 

Untied unto the worldly care 

Of public fame or private breath. — Wotton. 

|HILE planning and executing the vari- 
ous administrative reforms and the 
f literary works, controversial and play- 
ful, which we have just been consider- 
ing, Julian was engaged, throughout 
the year 362, in preparations for a re- 
newal of the Persian War. He must 
indeed have regarded the prosecution of that war as 

295 




296 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

one of the duties involved in the acceptance of the 
Imperial dignity. Nor, considering the ruined state 
of the frontier provinces, and the constant danger of 
a serious invasion, can we regard that view as in any 
sense unreasonable. Whether, as some of the Church- 
historians say, the death of Constantius encouraged 
the Persians to attempt more daring enterprises, or, 
as seems more probable, the accession of a prince 
who had already won great military fame in the 
West, led Sapor at once to desire negotiations, 
Julian must have felt sure that he could only win a 
secure and honourable peace by forcing the Great 
King to feel more respect for the Roman arms. It 
seems, therefore, hardly reasonable to charge him 
with rushing needlessly into war, 2 still less are we to 
regard his Eastern campaign as part of a great plan 
for crushing the Christians everywhere. Doubtless, 
a successful war would have done much to increase 
his authority, and so would have facilitated many of 
his projects of reform. But apart from any such 
consideration, the continuation of the Persian War 
was inevitable. And Julian determined that, if he 
led an expedition at all, it should be on a grand 
scale. 

The length of time which elapsed before the 
campaign was actually begun, and which is rather 
remarkable, considering the usual celerity of all 
Julian's enterprises, is to be accounted for partly by 
the Emperor's anxiety to set on foot the reforms 
we have been considering, and partly by the extent 
of the preparations required. These preparations 
were carried on first at Constantinople and then at 




ANTIOCH AND THE ORONTES. 

STATUE IN THE VATICAN. 



363] Julian and the Antiochenes. 297 

Antioch. Early in the year 362 he received ambas- 
sadors from many Oriental states, including Ar- 
menia, 8 and probably discussed terms of co-operation 
in the war. It was most likely in the early summer 4 
that he left Constantinople for Antioch. He had 
named as officers of the army Victor and Hormisdas, 
the Persian fugitive whom we have already seen in 
the company of Constantius. They probably had 
to direct the muster of troops and the gradual trans- 
ference of the various companies from Europe into 
Asia. 

Julian and his immediate attendants did not pur- 
sue the most direct route into Syria. He seems to 
have chosen to visit those cities which most required 
his presence or which were most interesting to him 
from considerations of religion or of old acquaint- 
ance. He stayed on his way at Nicomedia, a city 
familiar to him in his younger days, which had lately 
suffered from a terrible calamity : a great portion of 
it had been shaken down by an earthquake. Julian 
explored the ruins, exchanged greetings with those 
of his old acquaintances who remained in the re- 
duced and impoverished city, and contributed a 
considerable sum of money towards the work of resto- 
ration. After proceeding to Nicaea, he turned south- 
wards to visit Pessinus in Galatia, in order to do 
honour to the famous abode of the Great Mother. 
He then went on to Ancyra, the inhabitants of 
which seem to have been of litigious nature, for 
they overwhelmed him with complaints and difficult 
questions, of a public and of a private character. 
Here, as elsewhere, Julian sought to show the dif- 



298 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

ference in his disposition from that of his predeces- 
sor, by treating with scorn all accusations based on 
an interested sycophancy. On hearing that a rich 
citizen had ordered a purple robe, he ordered that 
his accuser should convey to him a pair of purple 
shoes. In examining into claims of exemption from 
public duty, he showed that stern determination to 
let no man off too easily, of which we have seen 
abundant traces in his legislation. 

On his way from Phrygia to Cilicia, through Cap- 
padocia, Julian wrote a pleasing letter 6 to a certain 
philosopher named Aristoxenus, whom he did not 
know personally, bidding him come to him at Tyana, 
and show that there was at least one pure-blooded 
Greek dwelling in those lands. He is not to hesitate 
to place himself among the Emperor's friends. All 
are naturally friends to one another that have the 
same aspirations towards what is best. Similarly at 
Pylse, on the Cilician frontier, Julian welcomed an 
old philosopher-friend, Celsus by name, now acting 
as Rector of the province, and took him up into his 
chariot. Wherever Julian went, he was likely to 
pick up philosophers by the way and add them to 
his cortege, as Frederick William of Prussia picked 
up giants for his guards. He passed on through 
Tarsus, and arrived at Antioch just as the inhabi- 
tants were celebrating the festival of Adonis. The 
sounds of mourning which accompanied the doleful 
ceremonies seemed to betoken an unhappy issue to 
the sojourn thus inauspiciously begun. 

It needed, however, neither omens nor prophet to 
predict that Julian's relations with the Antiochenes 



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THE CILICIAN GATES. 



363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 299 

were not likely to continue easy and cordial. The 
physical and moral atmosphere of the voluptuous 
city which Ammianus calls " Orientis apicem pul- 
chrum " was almost as dangerous to Julian as it had 
proved to his brother Gallus. He might be proof 
against its enervating influences, but the contentious 
spirit which ran riot among the people was not so 
easy for him to withstand. The great drawback to 
his achieving any measure of success was that while 
the city was divided into numerous factions, not 
one of them seemed to the Emperor deserving of 
sympathy, and his conduct ended in setting them 
all against him and in wellnigh uniting the seldom 
unanimous city in a common aversion to himself. 
The Christian majority was divided into three par- 
ties, to all of which he desired to do justice as he 
considered it, without feeling the slightest interest 
in the points at issue. At Antioch, while Arianism 
or Semi-Arianism had of late been dominant, the 
section which held the Nicene creed was again di- 
vided, on what seems to have been a purely personal 
question, into two factions that could never worship 
together. The Pagan minority, while not very 
zealous for their religion, loved dearly everything 
of the nature of games and shows. The contempt 
of amusements and the ascetic mode of life always 
exhibited by the Emperor were not likely to com- 
mend his creed to those whose chief associations with 
the Pagan deities were of luxurious and indecent 
oriental rites practised in the temples and groves of 
Daphne. The sober and moral element among the 
people to which, in the next generation, John 



300 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

Chrysostom could appeal, was equally incapable of 
appreciating his anti-Christian zeal and enthusiasm 
for sacrifices. The sect of Pagan-Puritans with 
whom he might have expected to feel some sym- 
pathy, the Cynics, were not unrepresented here, but, 
as we have seen, he disliked them as depreciators of 
culture and as unfaithful to their original principles. 
He felt no sympathy with the cry of the lazy mob 
for bread and games, still less if possible with the 
covetous eagerness of the rich to profit by the 
necessities of the poor. He was anxious to reduce 
public expenditure, but had no toleration for the 
lazy longing to escape all public burdens. And a 
series of events occurred which speedily brought 
into play all the latent causes of mutual disaffection. 
There was, however, one man in Antioch who 
enjoyed the esteem both of Julian and of the Anti- 
ochenes, and who seems to have tried, with some 
measure of success, to mediate between them. What 
Libanius tells us in his autobiography 6 and his ora- 
tions is certainly to be taken with a grain of salt, 
and it is by no means always consistent with itself, 
but his account of his relations with the Emperor 
at this time seems in the main fairly in accordance 
with what we know of the characters of both. Li- 
banius thought it beneath his dignity to wait on the 
Emperor before he was specially summoned. He 
desired that the Emperor should miss his presence 
and inquire after him. Julian did so, at a sacrifice 
made in the temple of Zeus Philios, and sent him a 
message on a tablet which gave the sophist an oppor- 
tunity for repartee. Libanius continued to absent 



363] Julian and the Antiochenes, 301 

himself, considering, apparently, that the Emperor 
had not been sufficiently cordial in his advances. 
But by waiting he obtained his reward. Julian sent 
for him, made what Libanius interpreted as an 
apology, and invited him to the mid-day meal. 
When Libanius replied that he could only eat late 
in the day, Julian asked him to come in the even- 
ing. Even the excuse of chronic headaches did 
not make the Emperor impatient. Libanius finally 
promised to come when invited, and from that time 
forth the two had many " feasts of reason " together. 
Libanius refused, he says, all offers of offices and 
emolument, and the Emperor was delighted to find 
a man who cared more for his friendship than for 
his power of rewarding his friends. Consequently, 
when Julian had quarrelled with the Senators, Li- 
banius spoke on their behalf without incurring the 
Imperial displeasure. He was chosen to make an 
oration when, at the beginning of the year 363, 
Julian entered on the consulship in company with 
Sallust. The Emperor seems to have bestowed on 
the sophist compliments to his heart's content. He 
corresponded with him after leaving Antioch for 
Persia. He promised, Libanius says, to receive 
favourably communications from the offending citi- 
zens if uttered by their illustrious representative. If 
all the Antiochenes had been of the mind of Li- 
banius, the months which Julian passed among 
them would have been pleasanter and more peaceful 
for both parties. 

At first Julian won favourable opinions from the 
common people by his assiduous and strict adminis- 



302 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, [362- 

tration of justice, though they probably felt more 
puzzled than pleased when he prevented them from 
wreaking their wrath against Thalassius, a former 
opponent of Gallus, by saying that the quarrel be- 
longed primarily to himself, and by settling it without 
delay. In a similar spirit he accorded full pardon 
to one Theodotus of Hierapolis, who grovelled be- 
fore him as he went to sacrifice on Mt. Casius, and 
confessed, what Julian had already heard, that he 
had petitioned Constantius, on his last march east- 
wards, to send Julian's head for exhibition in his 
native town. Such men were scarcely worth pun- 
ishing. Others of more formidable character re- 
ceived harsher measure. 

But the favour he might win in the law-courts 
was lost again in the temples and the senate-house. 
The extravagance of Julian's sacrifices might consti- 
tute a real grievance in a time of scarcity, and sen- 
sible men were provoked by spectacles of gorging 
and drunkenness resulting from the festivals among 
the soldiery, especially the Petulantes and Celtae, 
who often had to be carried home incapable to 
their quarters. Julian boasted of his barbarian 
fighters that the mimes and other amusements of 
the refined Antiochenes seemed to them utter mad- 
ness. Yet he felt obliged to indulge some of their 
grosser proclivities if he would retain their allegiance 
and keep them well affected to the Gods of Greece. 
Some of his measures, however, were of a kind not 
only to arouse disgust among the right-minded, but 
to stir up a fiery fanaticism among the vulgar. 

Antioch stood almost above all other cities of the 



363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 303 

time 7 in the magnificence of her buildings, — the 
palace of kings and emperors, the baths, race-course, 
theatre, and aqueducts, with the shady porticoes 
running along the evenly laid streets, delightful to 
the ease-loving citizens, and the temple and statues 
of the Gods. Here, as elsewhere, the honours paid 
to royalty, to the people, and to the Divinity were 
closely associated in thought and deed, for some of 
the emperors who had been benefactors of the city 
received in it Divine honours, and the races which 
delighted the citizens were run in honour of the 
Gods. In fact, Daphne, a beautiful suburb some 
miles from Antioch, had been made bv the succes- 
sive benefactions of Seleucid princes and Roman 
emperors, into a little Elis, where stood a noble 
temple of Apollo, built by Seleucus, and one of 
Zeus, the foundation of Antiochus Epiphanes, each 
containing a colossal statue of the God. Here at 
the traditional seasons were celebrated races and 
other contests modelled on those of Olympia, and a 
temple dedicated to Nemesis was supposed to indi- 
cate the severity of the contests and the justice of 
the awards. There were other sacred places in the 
neighbourhood, to say nothing of numerous temples 
in Antioch itself. There was a celebrated temple to 
Zeus on Mt. Casius, where a sacrifice by the Em- 
peror Hadrian (a great benefactor of the city) had 
been miraculously consumed. But the choicest 
abode of the tutelary gods of Antioch was Daphne, 
where they declared their will by means of sacred 
streams. One of the most famous of these Castalian 
wells had long ago been closed, it was said, by the 



304 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

prudence or the superstition of the Emperor 
Hadrian. This Julian determined to reopen, and 
accordingly he issued orders for its purification, by 
the removal of all bodies that had been buried in 
the vicinity. Now during the rule of Gallus, a pro- 
test had been made against the Pagan orgies which 
at times defiled the Daphnic groves, in the shape of 
a transference to that spot of the bones of the mar- 
tyr Babylas. Julian naturally resented this, and he 
also felt disgusted at the neglect into which some of 
the sacred rites had fallen. In the late summer, on 
the occasion of a great festival, he went to celebrate 
it in the temple, and was met — not, as he expected, 
by jubilant crowds with incense and victims, but by 
a priest with one goose provided at his own expense. 
This led the Emperor to address a strong remon- 
strance to the Senate. He upbraided the Antiochenes 
with being more chary in their gifts on public occa- 
sions than any petty Pontic village, though he finds 
them profuse enough in their private festivities and 
in letting their wives bestow gifts on Galilaeans pro- 
fessing poverty. Through their fault, he said, the 
God had forsaken his temple. But unfortunately 
for Julian, both the zeal and the numerous con- 
course of people which the festival of Apollo failed 
to call forth were ready enough to appear in honour 
of St. Babylas, as his remains were conveyed back 
from Daphne to the place in the city which thence- 
forth became their shrine. Men, women, and chil- 
dren helped in the sacred task, singing as they 
marched the words of the psalm : " Confounded are 
all who worship graven images, who boast them- 



363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 305 

selves in idols/' This ebullition of enthusiasm for 
the popular martyr and of spite against the unpopu- 
lar Emperor gave colour to the suspicion that icono- 
clastic zeal was the cause of the subsequent catas- 
trophe. On the 22d of October, the temple in 
Daphne, the joy and pride of the city, was de- 
stroyed by fire. It was but natural that suspicion 
should fall on the Christian zealots, especially as 
some had expressed dissatisfaction at recent addi- 
tions to the temple. Inquiry was made, perhaps 
aided by torture, yet no satisfactory solution was 
obtained. It was asserted that a devout philoso- 
pher, Asclepiades by name, had been burning wax 
candles before a silver statuette of Cybele, which he 
had placed at the feet of the colossal Apollo of 
Daphne, and that an accidental conflagration had 
occurred therefrom in the night, when there was no 
help at hand to extinguish the flames. If this story 
were accepted, the Antiochenes might be convicted 
of gross negligence, but of no wanton destructive- 
ness, and the retaliatory measure taken by Julian, 
the prohibition of services in their principal church, 
would appear somewhat harsh and unjust. 

But the purses of the Antiochenes were probably 
at least as dear to them as their religious principles, 
and in this region also they were subject to Julian's 
attacks. We have observed his determination to 
allow no qualified person to escape the pecuniary 
and other burdens attached to membership in the 
Senate. The illegal and corrupt way in which the 
senators recruited their members was one of his 
grievances against them, and he set his face against 



306 yulian y Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

what he regarded as insufficient claims of exemp- 
tion, on the ground of clerical profession, half-birth, 
or recent domicile. But more serious than even 
these regulations was his attempt to regulate the 
price of corn, — a rock on which his brother Gallus 
had made shipwreck many years before. 

The autumn of 362 was marked by great physical 
calamities. So great was the drought that many 
springs were dried up. The city of Nicaea and the 
remains of the unhappy Nicomedia suffered severely 
from another earthquake. A general scarcity of 
provisions set in, and, as usually happens in such 
cases, the rich were accused by the poor of hoarding 
their supplies in order to obtain a harvest for them- 
selves from the general disaster. The people of 
Antioch, assembled in the circus, besieged the Em- 
peror's ears with the cry : '• Plenty of everything ; 
everything dear." As to the course taken by Julian 
in this emergency, some of his bitterest foes give 
him credit for good intentions, while some of his 
staunchest supporters acknowledge his want of dis- 
cretion. Yet, according to his own account, he did 
not proceed hastily. He summoned a meeting of 
the chief people, and ordered them to find a remedy 
for the prevalent distress. During three months, 
however, their deliberations led to no effect. At the 
end of that time, Julian took the matter into his 
own hands, and drew up a list of prices, by which 
corn was to be sold at a moderate rate. This step 
naturally led the dealers to restrict their sales still 
further, and when the Emperor procured for the 
people quantities of corn from Chalcis, Hierapolis, 



363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 307 

and afterwards from Egypt, the proprietors naturally 
felt the cheapness as a grievance. As the hoarding 
continued, and in all probability the wealthy citizens 
set themselves to buy up the stores so liberally pro- 
vided, in order to sell again at the most profitable 
time and place, Julian had another and a stormy 
meeting with the Antiochenes, which ended in the 
whole body of senators, over two hundred in num- 
ber, being ordered into custody. True, they were 
liberated before supper-time, and an orator like 
Libanius might descant on the mildness of the ven- 
geance taken by the autocrat whose benevolent 
intentions were ever thus perversely opposed. But 
in later days it seemed to Libanius that the senators 
had not been much to blame after all, and he took 
pride in the thought that he had defended them in 
the Emperor's presence. It was not, however, the 
wealthy only that felt dissatisfaction with Julian's 
tariff. To some of the people it seemed desirable 
that the price of some of the minor luxuries, as well 
as the necessaries of life, should be reduced. But on 
this point Julian felt no obligations. He considered 
himself bound to provide the poor with bread, but 
not with superfluities, so that here again he failed to 
obtain the approval and gratitude of any of the con- 
flicting classes and interests. When, in order to 
render the relief permanent, he made a grant to the 
town of three thousand lots of waste land, he found 
that they were not being distributed to the most 
needy and deserving, and felt it necessary to burden 
them with obligations towards the State in order 
that private individuals of the wealthier classes 



308 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

should not be able to appropriate the whole advan- 
tage. Class privileges, the commercial advantages 
of the wealthy, the love of the common people for 
races and shows, the attachment of the many to the 
martyrs who were ousting the prestige of the ancient 
Gods, — all these things he not only discountenanced, 
but attacked with a virulence that led those who 
were deprived of more potent means of resistance to 
have recourse to the last resort of the weak, — a sar- 
castic and spiteful tongue, and to calumniate his 
name with reproaches, while they ridiculed his ap- 
pearance and habits in biting comic verse. 

It would certainly have been better for Julian's 
reputation if he could have shown himself as clement 
and humane towards those who laughed at his beard 
as he did towards those who desired his head. If he 
had already shown that a controversialist on the 
throne must needs descend from the sphere of digni- 
fied impartiality which best becomes a far-rulingsover- 
eign, he was now to prove that a satirist on the throne 
loses yet more of that personal dignity which should 
strike respect into his subjects of all degrees. Per- 
haps Julian's reputation has suffered more from the 
Misopogon among later generations than among his 
contemporaries, seeing that many commentators, 
wanting in sense of humour, have taken an serieux 
many of the unpleasant statements he ironically 
makes against himself, and so presented us with a 
representation of his person and manners disgusting 
in itself and inconsistent with what we read in other 
authors. The object of the satire is to ridicule the 
Antiochenes under cover of ridiculing himself from 



363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 309 

the Antiochian point of view. In the character of 
an Antiochian " beard-hater," he ridicules his own 
personal appearance, especially his ragged, unkempt 
beard, his excessive plainness of living, and his want 
of taste to appreciate games, dances, and all spec- 
tacles. From the same point of view he ridicules as 
boorish and inhuman the GGocppoGvv??, which the 
Emperor puts first of all things, and which the An- 
tiochenes entirely fail to comprehend. It seems to 
them to consist in such a slavery to the Gods and 
the laws, with rigid rules of abstinence and self- 
control, as must lead to the destruction of the city, 
with its love of liberty in all things. Then there are 
his tiresome habits of always going to the temples, 
and his harshness in reproving the people who would 
applaud him in the sacred places where he insists on 
reverent silence. 8 The Antiochenes, faithful to the 
memory of their founder, Seleucus, are self-indulgent 
in love and in diet, but Julian inherits all the rough- 
ness of his Thracian ancestors. His justification lies 
in his early education, especially in the narrowing 
influence of his paedagogue Mardonius, and in the 
stern moral maxims from the philosophers which 
have been impressed on his mind. The Antiochenes 
allow much license to their women. They care only 
for the K and the X {Kc*)v6ravrio$ and Xpiaro^), 
from whom the city has never suffered such annoyance 
as from Julian. But he has made himself obnoxious to 
the people because of his adhesion to the religion of 
his fathers and his little care for the theatre and for 
pleasures. They had shown their mood in old times 
by preparing a splendid reception for Demetrius, 



310 yuliaUy Philosopher and Emperor. [362- 

the wealthy freedman of Pompeius, which, by a 
ludicrous mistake, was given to Cato the Stoic, a 
man by no means delightful to them. Julian's life 
among the Gauls, who have no taste for Antiochian 
entertainments and refinement, and whose barbar- 
ous ways has made them feel loyal to him as to a 
congenial spirit, has further removed him from all 
sympathy with civilised people. He goes on to ex- 
press the difference between himself and the citizens 
in their ideas as to the relative scale to be observed 
in private and in religious festivities, and the impos- 
sibility of co-operation against the disastrous results 
of the famine. He acknowledges that he has failed 
with them and that he had better go. If he tried 
to reform his manners, he would but be as the kite 
that tried to copy the neighing of a horse, and so 
lost his own voice without acquiring the other. His 
benefits have aroused no gratitude, and he has only 
brought trouble to himself and to them. 

The tone of the whole piece is very bitter, espe- 
cially towards the end, and it concludes with some- 
thing very like an imprecation. True, what Julian 
denounces is only what deserves the strongest de- 
nunciation : the wanton, frivolous, covetous tone of 
a luxurious and unprincipled community. Before 
long, the Antiochenes were to receive more lashes 
for the same offences, at the hand of one of the 
noblest of eastern Bishops. 9 Julian's governmental 
system would hardly have afforded scope for a 
censor in the position of Chrysostom, yet moral 
denunciations may seem to us more becoming in 



363] jfulian and the Antiochenes. 311 

the mouth of a spiritual than in that of a temporal 
ruler. 

While at Antioch Julian lost one of his nearest 
and strongest supporters, his uncle Julian. Church 
writers see in his painful end a judgment on his co- 
operation in the anti-Christian measures of his 
nephew. The elder Julian seems to have been popu- 
lar among some of the Oriental communities over 
which he had ruled, and his death must have been 
greatly regretted by the Emperor on public as well 
as on personal grounds. 

When he left Antioch, Julian declared his inten- 
tion, on his return, of staying at Tarsus rather than 
at Antioch. These words must have seemed after- 
wards a melancholy forecast as to the place which 
should afford him quarters for more than one winter. 
Meantime, he appointed to the government of Syria 
a Hierapolitan named Alexander, known to be of a 
severe and violent disposition. If this appointment 
was made chiefly with a view to harass the Anti- 
ochenes, as Ammianus seems to imply, Julian must 
indeed have allowed personal feeling to move him 
from the path of rectitude. A letter of Libanius, 10 
however, will show that Alexander, though unpopu- 
lar, was able to maintain his authority and keep 
order, and thus his policy may have been more suc- 
cessful than that of Julian himself. The Emperor 
was certainly right in discerning a mutual incom- 
patibility of temperament between himself and the 
people of the great Syrian city. According to his 
principles of morality, he was justified in making no 



312 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [362-363 

secret of his feelings. What, if he had reigned 
longer, the ultimate result might have been of this 
abandonment of self-control, so different from the 
dissimulation in which he had passed his youth, 
must remain a matter of conjecture. 





Coin of Antioch. 
Obverse, Head of Tyche of city. Reverse, a spray of laurel. (?) 



Notes on Chapter XIII. 3 1 3 



NOTES ON CHAPTER XIII. 

1 The chief authorities for this chapter are : Ammianus, xxii., g ff. ; 
Julian's own account in the Misopogon, Zosimus, iii., II ; the Orations 
and Autobiography of Libanius ; and the Church historians, espe- 
cially Socrates, iii., 17, 19, and Theodoret, iii., 21 ff. See also 
Miicke, ch. 6, 7. Schwarz is always useful for chronological data. 

2 As Schiller would seem to do, iii., 3, 26. 

3 Ammianus, xxii., 7. 

4 Zosimus says that he spent ten months in Constantinople, but 
this is probably an error. See Schwarz, p. 18. 

5 Ep. 4. 

6 Autobiography, 82 ff. 

7 See two papers, De Antiquitaiibus Antiochenis , by K. O. Miiller, 
published with his lesser works in German. 

8 It is interesting to compare what Julian says of the irreverent 
behaviour of the Antiochenes in the Temple services, with the very 
similar reproaches made by St. Chrysostom in his sermon to them on 
Christmas day. See W. R. W. Stephens' Life and Times of 
Chrysostom. 

9 See a bright little sketch called St. Chrysostom 's Picture of his 
Age, published in 1876 by the Society for the Propagation of Christian 
Knowledge. 

10 Libanius, Ep., 722. 




Coin of Sapor II. of Persia. 
Reverse, Fire Altar with worshippers. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

JULIAN'S PERSIAN CAMPAIGN. HIS DEATH. 1 

363. 

" The end of life is the same as if a praetor who has employed an 
actor dismisses him from the stage. ' But I have not finished the five 
acts, but only three of them.' Thou sayest well, but in life the three 
acts are the whole drama. For what shall be a completed drama is 
determined by Him who was once the cause of its composition, and 
now of its dissolution ; but thou art the cause of neither. Depart 
then satisfied, for He also who releases thee is satisfied." 

Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, xii., 36. 
(Long's translation). 

Y the 5th of March, 363 (the year of 
Julian's fourth consulship, in which 
he was associated with Sallust, Pre- 
fect of the Gauls), the Emperor's 
preparations were sufficiently ad. 
vanced for him to be able to begin 
his Eastern campaign. He probably 
felt much relieved in departing from the city in 
which he had experienced so much of disappoint- 
ment and failure. The fickle people of Antioch 

314 




363] Julians Persian Campaign, 315 

were profuse in their demonstrations of good wishes, 
and the senators accompanied him on the first stage 
of his journey, after which they were dismissed with 
a hortatory and not very condescending address. 

It is not certain whether at this moment Julian 
had either arranged a detailed plan for the campaign, 
or decided as to his ultimate course with regard to 
Persia in case he should prove successful. He cer- 
tainly meant to strike at the heart of the kingdom, 
but was as yet unaware at what points he might ex- 
pect to encounter resistance from the enemy. The 
comparative ease with which, in the great days of 
Greece, armies from the West had penetrated to the 
neighbourhood of Babylon, may have rendered him 
insufficiently regardful of the vastness of his enter- 
prise. The thought of Alexander was ever with him, 
and many ages seemed to witness his deeds, as forty 
centuries looked down from the Pyramids on the 
armies of Napoleon. At the same time, he did not 
neglect the less encouraging memories, — those of 
Caesar, of the younger Crordian, of Valerian. Critics 
have remarked that he relied too much on the kind 
of experience he had gained in the Gallic wars, 
whereas that which he was now undertaking required 
greater forces and more circumspection. Even at 
that time, warning voices were heard. The Greek 
oracles which he consulted (of Delphi, Delos, and 
Dodona) 2 seem to have given favourable responses. 
But the Sibylline Books, and various omens, as well 
as some purely human warnings, such as those of 
Libanius and of Sallust, Prsefect of the Gauls, were 
strong on the other side. However, Julian's piety 



3 1 6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

never prevented him from interpreting oracles and 
omens in his own sense, nor did his loyalty to his 
friends ever lead him to subject his judgment to 
theirs. 

It is probable that from the first, Julian had con- 
ceived a plan for avoiding future dangers on the side 
of Persia. 3 This was to dethrone Sapor, and to re- 
place him by the fugitive prince Hormisdas, whom 
we have already seen in the company first of Con- 
stantius and later of Julian. The parentage and his- 
tory of this man is not related alike by the different 
historians, but, according to a not improbable ac- 
count, 4 he was an elder brother of Sapor, who had 
been excluded from the kingdom in consequence of 
a quarrel with the Persian grandees. In any case, 
he had incurred the enmity of the existing govern- 
ment and fled, first to the Armenian and then to the 
Imperial Court. The conspicuous position which he 
holds in Julian's army, the frequency with which he 
is employed in negotiations ; and the enmity which 
is shown towards him by his fellow-countrymen, are 
in favour of the supposition that the prospect of 
greatness had been held out to him. 

We have already seen that Julian had received 
embassies with a view to alliance. Some of these he 
declined, probably because he did not wish to be 
burdened with the task of supplying provisions to 
an unwieldy host. He built some hopes, however, 
on Arsaces, King of Armenia, who had been, as just 
stated, the protector and friend of Hormisdas. This 
king had received in marriage, at the hand of Con- 
stantius, a lady of high birth, and he and his people 




[*' IN HIS EASTERN CAMPAIGN. 
'& + + + + 




MAP SHOWING JULIAN'S LINE OF' MARCH IN HIS EASTERN CAMPAIGN. 

Julian's route ++ + -f -f + + 



/ 



363] Julians Persian Campaign. 317 

regarded themselves as hereditary allies of the 
Romans. 5 Some Saracen tribes were inclined to 
support the Emperor if he would pay them suf- 
ficiently high subsidies. As he deemed such a course 
derogatory to the dignity of Rome, certain of them 
stood aloof or took the part of his adversaries, 
though, on his demand, some joined him before he 
had gone very far. 6 Some Goths also joined him 
after a few days' march. 

A fleet was meantime prepared on the Euphrates, 
to join the army on its march down that river. The 
number of the vessels, as of the entire army, is differ- 
ently given us by our different authorities. If, ac- 
cording to Zosimus, 7 Julian had with him a force of 
83,000 horsemen and foot together, it was a power- 
ful army for attack, but not sufficient to garrison all 
the strong places that he must capture on his way. 

On the 10th of March, Julian arrived at Hiera- 
polis, a city about twenty miles to the west of the 
Euphrates. Thence he sent an interesting and char- 
acteristic letter to Libanius, describing the journeys 
of the last five days and his present occupations. 
His style is terse and vigorous. He knew that the 
recipient of the letter would supply ample adornment 
to the material given, before it should be published 
to the world. The places at which he had lodged 
were Litarbae, Bercea, and Batnae. At Bercea, he 
had held a meeting of the senators, and tried in vain 
to impress on them the duty of piety towards the 
Gods. He had found the Berceans more ready to 
applaud him than to follow his exhortations, except 
such as were already of his way of thinking. From 



3 1 8 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

another source, 8 we hear of his endeavouring, while 
in this city, to mediate between a father and his son 
whom he had disinherited for going over to the 
Hellenic worship. After vainly trying to move the 
old man by setting forth the injustice of using com- 
pulsion in matters of faith, Julian turned to the 
younger, and offered to bestow on him the care 
which his parent had denied him. From Bercea, he 
had proceeded to Batnae, a charming place which 
reminded him of Daphne. It was Hellenic in charac- 
ter, though barbaric in name. But the worship of 
the Gods was practised in too sensational a style, 
and without sufficient reverence. In Hierapolis, 
Julian had been delighted to find a son-in-law of 
Jamblichus, a staunch Hellene, whom neither Con- 
stantius nor Gallus had been able to induce to for- 
sake his religious principles. Julian was now actively 
occupied in conducting trials in the camp, superin- 
tending sacrifices, negotiating with the Saracens, or- 
ganising a system of scouts, and collecting provi- 
sions for the army, so that we may thank the fulness 
of his hands for the business-like character of his 
communication. 

After a three days' stay at Hierapolis, the army 
marched on eastward, crossed the Euphrates by a 
bridge of boats, halted for a day at another Batnae 
(in Osrocene), and proceeded to Carrhse, 9 a place 
memorable as the scene of the disastrous defeat of 
the Crassi. Here Julian held a great review of his 
troops. Thence two courses were open to him by 
which to reach upper Asia. He might strike across 
Mesopotamia eastwards, past Nisibis to the Tigris, 



363] yulians Persian Campaign. 319 

or he might march southwards to Callinicus on the 
Euphrates, and then down that river to Circesium 
and so onwards. The former was the route once 
followed by Alexander, the latter that of Xenophon 
and the Ten Thousand. While he was deliberating, 
news came that the Persians were making raids on 
the peoples subject to the Romans, apparently in 
the neighbourhood of Nisibis. This decided him to 
adopt a plan to which he was already inclined, and 
to despatch a considerable force eastwards, that 
might hold the brigand bands in check, effect a junc- 
tion with Arsaces, ravage the provinces on the As- 
syrio-Armenian frontier, and subsequently join the 
main body in Assyria. This detachment was placed 
under the command of Sebastian, formerly Dux of 
Egypt, and Procopius, a relative of the Emperor, 
and in the eyes of some his probable heir. 10 With 
the main host, after a feigned movement towards 
the Tigris, Julian proceeded south, and reached Cal- 
linicus on the 27th of March. Here he celebrated 
the festival of the Mother of the Gods, and was re- 
joined " by his fleet. He then proceeded, in hopeful 
spirits, down the Euphrates to Circesium. This 
town possessed a considerable garrison, which Julian 
is said 12 to have strengthened. He seems not yet 
to have abandoned the plan of keeping a line of 
communications behind him. Or it may be that the 
last important place on Roman soil seemed specially 
worthy of defence. A few days' march, past 
Zaitha, near which lay the tomb of the Emperor 
Gordian, and Dura, brought the army into the re- 
gions called by the vague name of Assyria, which 



320 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. \Z6Z 

owned the Persian supremacy. The first hostile 
demonstration to be made was against an island fort 
variously called Anatho and Phathusa. The com- 
mandant, however, capitulated and was received 
into Roman employ, the lives of the defenders were 
spared, and the army had the satisfaction of restor- 
ing liberty to a number of prisoners, including an 
old man who had been captured in the expedition 
of Galerius, more than thirty-six years before, but 
had always kept up a hope of being buried in Ro- 
man soil. The fortress was burned down, and the 
country that the army passed through was ravaged. 
Some fortresses were left untaken, on a promise of 
adopting the side of the Romans should their expe- 
dition prove successful. The army marched so as to 
cover a large space, the baggage in the centre, while 
the Emperor rode actively from company to com- 
pany to avoid disorder and straggling. A large 
number were told off to act as scouts, — a necessary 
precaution, seeing that small detachments of Per- 
sians were hovering in the neighbourhood, from one 
of which Hormisdas had once a narrow escape. 
They had further difficulties to encounter, as they 
proceeded southward, from the canals and marshes 
which the dwellers by the lower Euphrates, like the 
Dutch in later times, could render useful allies 
against an invading army. When the waters had 
been crossed by swimming, or on improvised 
bridges, a serious resistance was encountered from 
the strongly fortified town of Pirisabora. His first 
assault having failed, Julian ordered a wooden turret 
to be applied, — the helepolis, first famous in the 



3631 Julians Persian Campaign. 321 

sieges of Demetrius Poliorcetes. This led the com- 
mandant to propose a capitulation. Quarter was 
given to the inhabitants, but the town was utterly 
destroyed. The stores of arms and provisions were 
gladly appropriated by the Romans. 

The discipline maintained in the Roman camp 
was strict, not to say harsh. When three squadrons 
were overcome by a body of Persians under com- 
mand of the Surena y and a standard taken, the Em- 
peror, by a daring and swift attack, recovered flag 
and honour, and inflicted death (" according to the 
ancient laws," as Ammianus says) on ten of those 
that had been guilty of cowardice in flight. The 
donatives given to the soldiers after the capture of 
a town did not satisfy their expectations, and Julian 
could only restrain the tendency to mutiny by as- 
suring them, in a vigorous speech, that more could 
not be spared for them at present, though abundant 
wealth lay before them if they were only courageous, 
and trusted in God and in himself. He meant to 
carry on this enterprise as long as he lived and 
reigned, and he appealed to their loyalty to support 
him. His exhortation was well received, and his 
spirit communicated to the whole host, which knew 
his readiness to take his full share in all labours and 
privations. 

The abundant produce of the land through which 
they now had to march, especially the dates and 
vines, afforded some compensation to the soldiers 
for the annoyance of having to cross more sluices 
and canals on palmwood planks, swollen skins, or 
whatever else could serve the purpose. They had 



322 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

now left the main stream of the Euphrates, and 
were approaching the Tigris. Another important 
siege had to be undertaken, that of Maogamalcha, 
while the trusted commander Victor, with a body of 
reconnoitrers, went on towards Ctesiphon to see if 
any enemy were to be encountered. While surveying 
the fortifications of Maogamalcha, Julian was per- 
sonally attacked by some Persians who had observed 
him, and only escaped after a hand-to-hand conflict 
with his foe. The city did not yield to the first 
assaults. Recourse was had to mining, and a simul- 
taneous attack from without and from below led to 
surprise, confusion, and a ghastly massacre. Women 
and children seem never to have been spared in 
these assaults. Libanius says that Julian would 
have preferred to take prisoners rather than to slay, 
but he could not restrain his excited soldiery. He 
specially ordered, however, that the King's guards 
should be spared with their leader, who was, never- 
theless, put to death soon after for insulting Hor- 
misdas. 13 For his personal share in the abundant 
spoils, he took only three pieces of gold and a deaf- 
and-dumb child, whose pantomimic gifts had struck 
his fancy. Some Persians who had taken refuge in 
a subterranean passage were suffocated by a fire 
made at the entrance. The terror spread by the 
Roman successes was so great that a Persian prince 
who had lately sallied forth from Ctesiphon to 
oppose Victor and his forces, thought it best to 
desist from his attempt and beat a retreat. 

Not far from Maogamalcha, the army arrived at a 
magnificent park and hunting-ground belonging to 




UJ 

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O u. 

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UJ uj 

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3631 Julians Persian Campaign. 323 

the King, with a palace built in Roman style. Julian 
ordered the enclosure to be destroyed, and the men 
enjoyed some sport of an exciting character, since 
lions and wild boars were among the game preserved 
for the royal amusement. The palace he ordered to 
be spared, but if Libanius is right, it was fired by 
the soldiers. The army was allowed a halt for re- 
pose, but difficulties and the need for watchfulness 
by no means diminished as it proceeded. On one 
occasion, the Persians made a successful assault on 
the Roman baggage. On another, a sudden sortie 
from a fort led to the flight and seizure of several 
Romans, though this was followed by the disgrace 
of some cowardly horsemen, and the subsequent 
capture of the place. Meanwhile, the fleet had to 
be brought from the Euphrates to the Tigris. From 
books, and from the testimony of the natives, Julian 
had learned of a canal, called the " Royal River " 
(Naargamalcha), which formerly flowed from the one 
to the other, but was now choked up with rubbish. 14 
He ordered it to be cleared, and the ships were safely 
conveyed into the waters of the Tigris. Before pro- 
ceeding he roused the spirits of the men with games 
and races, in preparation for the next step on which 
he had decided. This was to transfer his forces to the 
other side of the great river. It seemed a hazard- 
ous proceeding, as a Persian host was already mus- 
tered on the opposite side, strong in missile weapons, 
in horse, and in elephants. Several of the generals 
to whom Julian made known his design remon- 
strated. But the Emperor was quite determined on 
the matter. The heavier transport ships were un- 



324 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

laden and filled with men, and five of them were 
entrusted to Victor, with orders to effect a crossing 
under cover of the night. But the enemy on the 
high bank opposite perceived them, and hurled burn- 
ing brands which set the ships on fire. The Roman 
host felt alarmed, but Julian had the presence of 
mind to resort to a pious fraud, such as he had 
probably learned to use in interpreting oracles. He 
declared that the flames which the soldiers saw were 
the prearranged signal of the successful landing of 
their comrades. All were now eager to embark, and 
the night together with the day following were 
occupied in the crossing and in desperate fighting on 
the eastern bank. In the end, thanks in great meas- 
ure to the personal activity of the Emperor, the 
troops were transferred, the half-burned ships re- 
covered, and the enemy driven back with great loss. 
The way now seemed open to Ctesiphon, and but 
for the opposition of Victor, who had been wounded, 
and felt unequal to any further enterprise, an at- 
tempt would have been made on that city, into 
which the Persian generals with the fugitives effected 
a retreat. 16 

The army had now penetrated into the neighbour- 
hood of those ancient cities, the centres of several 
civilisations and capitals of successive empires, which 
had from of old dominated the great river-basins 
north of the Persian Gulf. Julian was within about 
fifty miles of Babylon, on the Euphrates, now no 
longer a place of importance. Close at hand on the 
Tigris was Seleucia, great in the days of Alexander's 
successors, long since reduced to almost nothing by 



363] yuliaris Persian Campaign, 325 

the arms of Verus, and now commonly known as 
the village of Coche. Opposite to it was Ctesiphon, 
the capital of the Parthian empire, now occupied by 
the Persian forces. Great as had been the success 
of the army hitherto, its position was still critical. 
The force which had harassed it on the Euphrates 
was by no means annihilated. A strongly fortified 
city dominated the river by which the fleet must 
pass if it were decided to advance in a north-east- 
erly direction to meet the force sent on before and 
the Armenian allies. To the East lay a comparatively 
unknown region, with a terrible possibility of en- 
countering the Great King and all his host. To the 
West, along the route by which it had come, was 
a devastated land through which retreat was im- 
possible. 

Julian halted, awarded prizes for valour to the sol- 
diers who had distinguished themselves, offered sac- 
rifices, the victims of which gave unfavourable signs, 
and held a council of war as to the step to be taken 
next. The most natural thing to do, it seemed, 
would be to lay siege to Ctesiphon. To leave so 
strong a place in one's rear was against all the rules 
of prudent warfare. Yet, strange to say, the opin- 
ion of the officers, to which the Emperor acceded, 
was that, under present circumstances, and consider- 
ing the probable nearness of the King, the siege had 
better not be undertaken. Ctesiphon had not proved 
impregnable in by-gone days, but probably Sapor or 
his predecessors had lately strengthened its fortifica- 
tions. In any case, the idea was abandoned. An- 
other course, which some of Julian's modern critics 



326 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

would have advised, was to wait for Arsaces and the 
forces sent by way of the Tigris to join him. Julian 
was anxiously looking out for these troops, and 
different causes are assigned for their non-appear- 
ance. But whether the generals had quarrelled 
among themselves, or turned aside to make war 
on the natives, or whether Arsaces had found it 
inconsistent with his Christianity to support an 
apostate emperor, the forces did not appear. It 
would, perhaps, be unfair to reproach Arsaces with 
treachery. He suffered in after times for his fidelity 
to the Roman cause. And it seems, after all, not 
improbable that, if sufficient time had been allowed, 
he would not have missed his appointment. 16 

Again, it might have been possible to accept the 
overtures of Sapor and enter into negotiations with 
a view to an honourable peace. According to some 
accounts, 17 Hormisdas was himself desirous of such 
a course. But Julian was anxious lest the news of 
any such suggestions might damp the ardour of the 
soldiers, and ordered the messengers to be sent 
away secretly. What he personally intended to do 
was to follow in the footsteps of Alexander and to 
strike out eastwards. 

The rashness of this course is evident to us. Ju- 
lian can only have hoped to justify it by some bril- 
liant success. It is not easy, however, to form a 
clear notion as to his plans at this moment. He 
cannot have been unaware of the difficulties in the 
way, from the enemy, the climate, and his own igno- 
rance of the country. The Persian guides whom he 
had with him soon proved themselves utterly un- 



363] yulians Persian Campaign. 327 

trustworthy. It was now the middle of June, and the 
burning sun, with mosquitoes and other pests, were 
peculiarly trying to men accustomed to the snows 
and the winds of the far West And if he had had 
Alexander's army, and Alexander's genius, the ex- 
ample of his hero could hardly have been appealed 
to here. For when he advanced towards India, 
Alexander did not leave Susa or Persepolis untaken 
in his rear, nor was Darius then at large with a great 
army. Julian might also have remembered that 
Alexander's career was at last checked by the refusal 
of his soldiers to go further. Such an event might 
soon be looked for in his own camp. 

The determination on an eastward march involved 
a most momentous step — the destruction of the 
fleet. It was of no use to leave it there to fall into 
the hands of the enemy ; the army could not be 
thinned so as to leave an adequate guard ; and the 
ships, even if sufficiently manned, could not force 
their way up the Tigris, in the teeth of the garrison 
of Ctesiphon. Even if they did so, they would be 
of no service to the army in its farther progress or 
on its return. It was decided to set fire to all the 
ships, except a few small vessels, suitable for bridge- 
making, that could be conveyed inland on waggons. 
These were before long captured in an attack of the 
enemy. The loss of the fleet was felt bitterly after- 
wards. Even before the conflagration was com- 
pleted, Julian is said, on discovering the treachery of 
his spies, to have revoked his decision. But it was 
too late to extinguish the flames. 

Now began a time of greater sufferings and disasters 



6 



28 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 



for the Romans than they had as yet experienced. 
The Persians had destroyed all the provisions in the 
country through which their road lay, so that famine 
was added to the other terrors of the midsummer 
march. Julian did what he could to encourage the 
men. On one occasion, remembering probably the 
example of Agesilaus, he displayed before them the 
puny forms of their oriental captives, and asked 
what they could dread from such men. It was not, 
however, so much the Persian army as Julian's patron 
King Helios above and the trench-divided land be- 
low that hindered progress and made the men insist, 
tumultuously at last, on a retreat homewards. Most 
reluctantly, Julian was obliged to consent. The 
question now was whether to march westward 
through Assyria or to go in a northerly direction, 
and occupy Corduene, the frontier province between 
Armenia and Media. Sacrifices were made. The 
victims gave no decided response, and it was resolved 
to proceed towards Armenia. In that direction, an 
unravaged country might be hoped for ; there was a 
chance, too, of hearing of Arsaces. And might not 
Julian also have had in mind the retreat of the Ten 
Thousand ? 

Before long an ominous cloud of dust suggested 
anxious questions in the army. Was it a flock of 
wild asses, or a body of Saracens, such as were now 
proving very formidable to the retreating host, or 
might it be the great host of Sapor himself ? After 
an anxious, sleepless night, the most serious alterna- 
tive proved the true one. The Persians were seen, 
clad in well-fitting armour, and backed by their for- 



363] Julians Persian Campaign. 329 

midable elephants, the sight and odour of which 
terrified both man and horse. Nor was there a 
chance that, as in many battles of old, the great 
beasts might be driven back so as to prove more 
fatal to friends than to foes. For we are told that 
each driver carried a short knife with which to stab 
in a mortal place the elephant on which he rode as 
soon as it should show dangerous symptoms. 

Formidable as the aspect of the army was, how- 
ever, the Romans greeted it with joy. Fighting was 
more to their mind than painful marching. But 
Julian was unwilling to bring on a general engage- 
ment without due preparation. A stream separated 
the hosts, and for a time there were but skirmishes 
and partial encounters in which some deeds of daring 
were performed. 18 The Romans were even able to 
halt and rest for two days at a place called Hucum- 
bra. During the succeeding days, we have the old 
stories of attacks on the baggage, of alarms, of 
degradations for cowardice, of distressing efforts to 
secure the burning harvests. At a place called 
Maranga, the Romans found the foe drawn up in 
battle array, and a more serious engagement was 
fought. The battle seems not to have been decisive, 
but the loss was much greater on the Persian side. 
In fact, the Persians proved themselves far less for- 
midable in hand-to-hand fighting than in sudden 
charges and flights with missiles, and this discovery 
was an encouragement to the Romans. 

A three days' truce followed, for the recovery of 
the wounded and the repose of the exhausted. But 
the want of provisions prevented the men from de- 



33° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

riving much benefit from the rest. Julian himself 
could live on thin broth, and was ready to give to 
the most needy any extra portion supplied for him. 
But his men were not all accustomed to Stoic train- 
ing, nor admirers of the life of Diogenes. 

Even at this time, Julian used to spend most of 
his time at night in writing and meditating. On 
one occasion, according to a story which his friends 
said they had received from himself, he saw, perhaps 
in a vision induced by weariness and anxiety, the 
Genius of the Roman People, moving sadly away, 
with head and cornucopia hidden in his robe. Long- 
ing to see a more favourable sign, Julian came out to 
look at the starry heavens. A brilliant meteor met 
his glance. Next morning, he asked the Etruscan 
haruspices who accompanied his army how they 
would interpret the sign. They answered that no 
military operation should be attempted at present. 
But Julian, whose pious regard for omens was rather 
that of Hector than that of Nicias, gave orders that 
the camp should be broken up at daybreak. 

The Persians had returned to their old tactics. 
Avoiding any direct encounter with the infantry, 
they remained on the high ground at a little dis- 
tance, watching the Romans, in readiness for any 
opportunity of a sudden and partial attack. Julian 
tried to keep the flanks firm and the squares solid, 
but the nature of the ground was such that occa- 
sional gaps were inevitable. Always foremost in 
making surveys, the Emperor, without shield or 
breastplate, was occupied in the van, when tidings 
were brought to him that the enemy had attacked 



363] yulian and the Antiochenes. 331 

the rear. Seizing a shield, and without waiting for 
other accoutrements, he hastened towards the point 
in danger, but was speedily recalled by the news that 
the van was now experiencing a like assault. He 
returned to find that it was indeed so, but, heedless 
of showers of missiles, of elephants, of terror all 
around, he restored the spirit of his men and the for- 
tune of the field. The enemy fled, and Julian was 
foremost in pursuit. He might have remembered, 
even now, the old device of the foe, to hurl missiles 
backward while in full flight. As he pursued the 
fugitives, the javelin of a flying Persian pierced his 
unprotected side, and being double-edged, cut his 
fingers, and thus rendered vain his manful efforts 
to draw it out with his hand. 19 He fell from his 
horse, and was at once carried from the field. A tent 
was immediately pitched to receive him, since the 
Romans had not been able to make an entrenched 
camp this harassing day. There surgical aid was at 
once applied. 

For a while Julian did not realise that he had 
received his death-wound. When clear conscious- 
ness returned, he asked for horse and armour, that 
he might return to the field and encourage the sol- 
diers whom his disaster was already stimulating to a 
desperate valour. But loss of blood had weakened 
him. When he asked the name of the place where 
he lay, and they told him " Phrygia," his hopes 
waned yet more. For he had been told that 
Phrygia should be the place of his death, and, like 
Henry IV. in. Jerusalem Chamber, he heard his 
death-warrant in that word. He had doubtless 



332 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. [363 

thought to die near the sacred precincts of the 
Mother of the Gods. 

When he realised that the end could not be far off, 
he ceased from further effort to continue his active 
course, and endeavoured, while physical and mental 
strength remained, to comfort and encourage his 
friends and himself by falling back on those main 
principles of life which no press of active duties or 
of manifold cares and considerations had ever ob- 
scured in his mind. 20 He had always believed, he 
said, that the soul was nobler than the body, and 
that death was not an evil, but rather a special favour 
from the Gods. Nor had there been anything in his 
life which, at this moment, could fill him with 
anxious thought. He had been faithful in his task 
as ruler. As to success, that was not within the 
power of man to achieve ; the event must ever be 
determined by the Supreme Powers. He was thank- 
ful that death came to him in fair fight, not by 
treachery, nor by lingering disease. He forbore to 
express any wish as to his successor. His choice 
might not be the best, or it might bring trouble on 
the man chosen. He could only hope, for the sake 
of the whole State, that a worthy man might be 
appointed to rule over the people. 

Thus calmly, without remorse and without sense 
of failure, he set about the arrangement of his private 
affairs. Not that he was indifferent to the fate of 
the Empire, but that he had too much confidence in 
his cause to believe that it must perish with him. 
Nor did his clear conscience imply that he acknowl- 
edged no higher standard than that to which he had 



363] His Death. 333 

always conformed. But to a man of his habits of 
thought it seemed that all human imperfection was 
due to the connection of the soul with that fleshly 
envelope, from which he was presently to escape. 

One little touch of nature, however, affected the 
by-standers more than all this expression of lofty 
sentiment. He asked for his friend Anatolius, the 
Master of the Oflfices, probably in order to give him 
a last token of esteem. The Prsefect Sallust, who 
had himself narrowly escaped the sword of the 
enemy, replied that Anatolius was "beatus," — in 
plain words, that he had been killed. On hearing 
this, Julian showed bitter grief. The sight of a dying 
man lamenting one who had preceded him but a few 
hours, in its pathetic inconsistency, brought tears to 
the eyes of those who had known them both. The 
Emperor reproved them. It was weakness, he said, 
to grieve for their prince as he was being taken up 
to the starry heavens. He then turned to the phi- 
losophers Maximus and Priscus, who stood by his 
bed, ready to confirm his faith and strengthen his 
parting spirit. Breathing became difficult. He 
asked for a draught of water, and quietly expired 
at about midnight. 

Christian legend 21 soon began to busy itself in 
weaving strange tales around the Emperor's death- 
bed, for which we have no foundation in any trust- 
worthy authorities. They need no disproof. But 
perhaps more importance should be attached to the 
notion which early gained ground, that the hand 
whence the weapon came by which Julian died was 
that of a Christian traitor in his own camp. 



334 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor, [363 

The story as told by Ammianus, whom we have 
followed in our account, is consistent, probable, and 
apparently based on first-hand knowledge. The 
notion that things might have been otherwise would 
doubtless be suggested by the known fact that there 
were Christians who desired his death, and by the 
equally patent and very disgraceful fact, that grave 
writers were afterwards found who applauded such 
a supposed deed of murderous treachery. Coun- 
tenance was certainly given to the opinion by a 
writer who loved not the Christians, and deplored 
the Emperor from the depth of his heart, — the 
orator Libanius. He is not quite self-consistent in 
his accounts, but argues that Julian must have fallen 
by treachery, since no Persian claimed the price 
which Sapor had placed on the Emperor's head. 
Even if Libanius were well informed on this point, 
the argument is inconclusive, for how, after the con- 
fusion of the battle, could any soldier present proofs 
as to the effect of his own special missile ? Or, if 
the slayer of Julian were a Christian, why should he 
not still claim reward from the King? Some said 
that it was a Saracen that did the deed. The char- 
acter of the weapon would have been the only 
evidence, and of that nothing conclusive is related. 
In any case, however Julian had died, men would 
have seen something portentous and supernatural in 
his end. Hermits and saints would have seen visions 
at a distance, and men would have tried to find in 
the last words of him they hated and feared an 
acknowledgment that the Galilsean had conquered, 
that Helios had rejected his devotee, and that the 



363] His Death. 335 

Carpenter's Son had prepared a coffin for the 
scorner. 

Julian may be said to have slain many in his 
death as in his life. The immediate result of his 
removal from the field was not a panic, but a more 
determined attack on the enemy. Fifty distinguished 
men among the Persians are said to have fallen 
in the field. But the Roman loss also — apart from 
the greatest loss of all — was considerable. Some 
bands of the soldiers took to flight. One gained 
possession of a fort in the neighbourhood, and held 
it till, after three days, it was enabled to rejoin the 
main body of the army. 

But, after all, the death of Julian was a far greater 
calamity to the Romans than would have been the 
loss of many battles. For long, no tidings of him 
had reached the frontier. Libanius, in Antioch, was 
hoping to hear of fresh victories, when the disastrous 
news arrived. The earthquakes which were again 
working havoc in Asia Minor seemed a fitting pre- 
sage of the dire event. Superstition might express 
in fantastic forms the sense men had of a far-reach- 
ing occurrence. It could hardly exaggerate the 
importance of what had actually happened. 





Coin of Jovian. 



2,^6 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

NOTES ON CHAPTER XIV. 

1 Besides the already-mentioned authorities, I have found two 
treatises very useful as to the subject of this chapter : Sievers' Studien 
zur Geschichte der Romischen Kaiser : Julian's Perser-Krieg, and 
Reinhardt's Der Tod des Kaisers Julian, 

2 Theodoret, iii., 22. 

3 See Lib., Ep. 1457. 

4 Zosimus, ii., 27. 

5 Sozomen tells us of a peremptory and offensive letter written by 
Julian to Arsaces, contrasting his own rule and character with those of 
his predecessor, and a letter (furnished from these indications ?) in all 
probability spurious, has found its way into the collection of Julian's 
letters. He can hardly have been so impolitic as to write in a fashion 
certain to repel a useful ally. 

6 Cf. Am., xxiii., 3, and xxv., 6, and Jul., Ep., 27. 

7 iii., 12, 13. 65,000 at Carrhse — 18,000 already sent off to the 
Tigris under Sebastian and Procopius. 

8 Theodoret, iii., 22. The anecdotes about Julian told by Church 
historians are not generally very worthy of credit, but this one seems 
not uncharacteristic or improbable. 

9 According to Zosimus, he turned aside to visit Edessa, but Sozo- 
men (vi., i.) denies this, and it is inconsistent with the account of 
Ammianus. 

10 A relative on the mother's side (?). Shortly before this, Julian 
is said (as Ammianus reports) to have given Procopius a purple robe 
and named him his successor. But as the ceremony is said to have 
been without witnesses, we cannot regard it as a proved or even 
probable event. 

11 Or joined. It is not clear whether he had met the fleet before. 

12 Not by Ammianus nor by Zosimus, but by Malalas. 

13 Mucke understands that all the eighty guards with Nabdates were 
burned to death, but the words of Ammianus do not seem to bear out 
this hideous suggestion. 

14 Bunbury {Ancient Geography, chap, xxx.) has some remarks on 
the topographical difficulties connected with our narrative. There is 
still a trench bearing a name of similar import, but it does not oc- 
cupy the line one would expect. The water-system of the lower 
Euphrates and Tigris has probably changed in the lapse of centuries. 

15 The account of Zosimus is here strangely different from that of 



Notes on Chapter XIV. 337 

Ammianus, since he represents Julian as crossing two days after the 
battle. We can only suppose (a) that Julian was not present at the 
battle, though Ammianus, apparently an eye-witness here, says he 
was most active in it ; (/?) that he returned and crossed again next 
day ; or {y) that the crossing, in the account of Zosimus, is not of 
the Tigris at all, but of the canal, which, according to Ammianus, 
had been crossed already. 

16 On this point see the pamphlet of Reinhardt referred to above. 

17 Of Libanius and Socrates. Ammianus and Zosimus do not men- 
tion another special embassy at this juncture. 

18 By the brothers Maurus and Machamaeus (Am., xxv., i., and 
Zos., iii., 26), who had perhaps been left at Circesium, and rejoined 
the army. 

19 Zosimus says it was a dagger. But Ammianus is to be preferred 
here. 

20 We cannot, of course, suppose that he delivered the harangue 
which Ammianus puts into his mouth, but it probably represents the 
main drift of his last sayings. 

21 See Milcke, Reinhardt, etc. The TakiXaie reriurfKaS ap- 
pears first in Theodoret. 





Coin of Valentinian the Elder. 
Reverse, Restitvtor Reipvblicae. Emperor holding Standard and Victory^ 



CHAPTER XV. 

OUTCOME OF JULIAN'S ENTERPRISES. HIS POSITION 

IN HISTORY. 

And not by eastern windows only 

When daylight comes comes in the light. 

In front, the sun climbs slow, how slowly, 
But westward, look, the land is bright. 

A. H. Clough. 




]-F this had been the biography of a 
great hero of progress, an initiator 
of a successful movement, or a 
founder of permanent institutions, 
our task, after narrating his death, 
would have been to trace the lines 
along which his work was carried on 
by those who succeeded to his ideas and authority. 
But Julian, as we have seen, was not a successful 
initiator; rather he was one who endeavoured to 
hold back the chief movement of his day and to 
prevent the disappearance of what was old and 
vanishing ; he founded no new institutions, though 

338 



Outcome of * Julian s Enterprises, 339 

he tried bravely to infuse new energy into those 
that remained ; and he had, properly speaking, no 
successor. Yet it seems necessary, in order to com- 
plete even a slight sketch of the man and his 
thoughts and efforts in relation to the life of his 
times, to consider briefly the continuation or the 
abandonment of some of the tasks to which his 
short life was devoted, whether as soldier, as poli- 
tician, or as would-be religious reformer. 

We naturally begin with the military enterprises 
in the East, in the execution of which he had been 
suddenly struck down. Of course the immediate 
necessity laid upon the army that had lost its leader 
was to choose a successor. It was not merely a gen- 
eral for themselves, but a head of the Roman world 
that they had to appoint, for, in the absence of any- 
thing like either a constitutional rule or any definite 
principle of succession, there was little likelihood 
that the choice of the army, if fairly unanimous, 
would be disputed by any civic authorities. But the 
army was not united. The party that had formerly 
been attached to Constantius, led by the dashing 
Victor and the handsome, attractive Arinthaeus, 
wished for one of their own number. The semi- 
barbarians who had been devoted to the person and 
fortunes of Julian, prominent among whom were 
Dagalaif and Nevitta, desired one of themselves. A 
compromise, however, might have been made by 
the appointment of the brave and highly respected 
Sallust, the Praefect now with the army. But he 
declined the honour, and suggested that the throne 
should remain vacant till they arrived in Mesopo- 



34-0 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

tamia, — a suggestion which points towards Procopius, 
whom they hoped to meet in that province. The 
general feeling however was for an immediate choice, 
and, as commonly happens under such circumstances, 
the result was the unexpected and tumultuous elec- 
tion of a man without remarkable qualifications of 
any kind, Jovian, a Chief of the Guards (domesticorum 
ordinis primus). The new Emperor was the son of 
an illustrious soldier, Varronian, and was a man tall 
of stature, dignified in demeanour, a pleasant com- 
panion, of no great capacity in the field, and too fond 
of a good dinner. To complete the contrast between 
him and his predecessor, he was favourably inclined 
to Christianity, though the stories which would 
represent him as a persecuted confessor are to be 
taken with caution, and he certainly allowed an in- 
spection of sacrificial victims to decide on his next 
course, and also showed more obedience to their in- 
dications than Julian had sometimes done. The march 
was resumed. Sapor — overjoyed at the news of the 
Emperor's death and at the description he received 
of the character of his successor, continued to harass 
the army, and, according to some accounts, actually 
defeated it in battle. The soldiers who, for a brief 
moment, had been led by the similarity of the names 
Jovian and Julian to believe that the report of their 
beloved leader's death was false after all, were soon 
undeceived. The sufferings of famine and other 
privations became worse than ever. The soldiers 
begged to be allowed to recross the Tigris. Some 
bands were allowed to make the attempt, but they 
were not successful, and the army continued to 



Outcome of Julian s Enterprises. 341 

march along the left bank. The Persian king took 
this opportunity of offering peace on terms favourable 
to himself, and Jovian was not ashamed to consent 
to conditions that could never have been suggested 
to his predecessor. Sallust and Arinthaeus tried 
vainly to come to a more satisfactory arrangement. 
But Jovian was anxious to have something settled 
before they met with Procopius. Accordingly a 
truce was made for thirty years, on condition that 
the Romans gave up five provinces on or just beyond 
the Tigris (Arzanena, Moxoene, Zabdicena, Rehi- 
mema, and Corduene), with the strong towns of 
Nisibis and Singara, and many other places. The 
Romans further promised not to help Arsaces of 
Armenia against Persia. Nor did Jovian stipulate 
any immediate relief for the suffering army. Rather, 
as it ceased now to follow the course of the river, the 
pangs of thirst were added to those of hunger. At 
Thilsaphata, they joined forces with Sebastian and 
Procopius, who showed as yet no sign of disloyalty. 
It was with feelings of great relief that the soldiers 
approached the city of Nisibis, which was ready to 
receive the Emperor with all hospitality. He had 
not, however, the face to show himself to those whom 
he had betrayed. Very soon, a Persian officer 
arrived to insist on the execution of the treaty, and 
the evacuation of the city by its Roman inhabitants. 
Now ensued heartrending scenes. The Persian flag 
was hoisted. The people, of high and of low rank, 
begged in vain for permission to defend themselves 
unaided rather than to leave their native place. 
They reproached the Emperor with abandoning the 



34 2 yulian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

key to the province; they contrasted. his conduct 
with that of Constantius (did they not know or care 
for Julian ?) ; when an orator presented him with the 
customary crown, he ironically expressed the wish 
" May you be thus crowned, Emperor, by the cities 
that remain ! " The citizens were obliged to depart, 
with such goods as they could convey with them, 
casting regretful looks on their old homes and the 
tombs of their fathers. It is some consolation to 
know that many of them found a new home in the 
still Roman city df Amida. Leaving an officer be- 
hind to accomplish the execution of his ignominious 
treaty, Jovian hurried on, eager to secure the chief 
seats of the empire, towards Constantinople. He 
gave his men but a scanty rest at Antioch, and 
thence moved on to Tarsus, whither Procopius had 
preceded him with the bones of Julian. We hear 
from Gregory of Nazianzen of undignified games, 
and of buffoonery in which the habits and demeanour 
of the late Emperor were caricatured by those who 
saw the procession pass. The Antiochenes were cer- 
tainly not incapable of such conduct, but Julian's body 
did not rest among them, and probably did not pass 
through their city. Possibly Gregory is himself 
caricaturing the Pagan ritual and games which Pro- 
copius would probably celebrate on the way. Thus 
for a time the body of the last Hellenic Emperor 
rested in the birthplace of the Apostle to the Gen- 
tiles. A tomb was erected with an epitaph in hex- 
ameters, simply stating: " Here lies Julian, who fell 
by the strong-flowing Tigris. He was both a good king 
and a mighty warrior." Subsequently we hear that 



Outcome of Julian s Enterprises. 343 

the corpse was removed to Constantinople, and laid 
by the side of the Empress Helen. To Ammianus 
it seemed that Rome would have been for Julian a 
fitter resting-place, among the temples of the national 
Gods and the monuments of ancient heroes. 

Jovian never attained his desired goal. He was 
at Ancyra for the first day of the new year (364 A.D.), 
and showed yet again his want of regard for the 
dignity of the Empire by associating his baby son 
with himself in the consulship. When he reached 
Dadastana, on the confines of Bithynia and Galatia, 
he was one night found dead in his bed. Some 
attributed his end to a fit of indigestion ; others to 
the fumes of a coal fire, such as had once almost 
suffocated Julian in Paris ; others seem to have sus- 
pected foul play. In any case, little was said, and 
the army proceeded to the choice of a new Emperor. 
Sallust again received the offer of the purple and 
again declined it. The choice then fell upon Valen- 
tinian, a soldier of approved merit, who speedily 
requested and obtained permission to associate his 
brother Valens with him in the Imperial dignity. A 
return was now made to the arrangement of Dio- 
cletian, and though the unity of the Empire was still 
unimpaired, we have again two Emperors, to whom 
the care of the East and of the West were respec- 
tively assigned. Valens fixed his residence at 
Antioch, and it was thenceforth his care to meet the 
difficulties that arose on the side of Persia. Though 
the Romans had abandoned the alliance of Arsaces 
of Armenia, yet when Sapor invaded that country 
and loaded the king with chains, it was not unnatural 



344 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

that the Armenians should appeal to the Romans. 
At the same time the Persians had interfered in the 
affairs of Iberia, still a vassal state of Rome. Valens 
received hospitably the son of the king of Armenia 
(Arsaces had died in captivity), and an army was 
sent to place Roman candidates on the Iberian and 
Armenian thrones. But difficulties arose which in- 
duced the Romans to consent to a partition of 
Iberia, to which Sapor, however, would not consent 
till after another rather futile campaign. Meantime 
he and Valens were rivals for the adherence of the 
somewhat shifty Para, son of Arsaces, who finally 
met a treacherous death at the hands of a Roman 
emissary. If the Persian kingdom had been stronger, 
or if Sapor had had successors of his own calibre, 
the Persians might have taken further advantage of 
Roman preoccupation in the West. The final solu- 
tion, however, was a separation between Roman and 
Persian Armenia, which subsisted for long, and left 
permanent traces in the ecclesiastical divisions of the 
East. 

If Julian had lived, and if he had persevered in 
the enterprises he had undertaken in the East, it is 
difficult to say whether the relation of Rome and 
Persia might have been finally settled on a footing 
more satisfactory to the dignity of Rome. It would 
have cost Julian much treasure and probably many 
legions, to establish a vassal prince on the Persian 
throne, and even in that case, we cannot feel certain 
that Hormisdas and his dynasty would always have 
been faithful to their patrons. But we may feel 
sure that strong efforts would have been made to 



Outcome of Julians Enterprises. 345 

preserve Roman supremacy in Mesopotamia, and 
Roman ascendancy in Armenia as well as in Iberia. 
Yet the neglect of Julian to maintain his communi- 
cations and to provide against the great difficulties 
of eastern campaigns prevent us from regarding him 
as potentially what he ever desired to become, a 
later Alexander, spreading in eastern lands the 
religion, culture, and the civic life of the Helleno- 
Roman world. 

In the West, meantime, events were proving that 
Julian's campaigns and administrative reforms had 
not been thrown away. True, the Allemanni took 
advantage of the occasion offered by Julian's death 
to take up arms again, and if Jovian had had his 
will, the changes he projected in the military officers 
would have caused great danger to the Roman 
dominion in Western Europe. He sent from Asia 
to order that the post of Master of the Cavalry and 
of the Infantry should be given to his father-in-law 
Lucillian, and he instructed this new general to 
move the command in Gaul from the brave and capa- 
ble Jovinus. But the only result of this mission 
was that the army mutinied, Lucillian was killed, 
and Jovinus was retained in his office, to the great 
advantage of the provincials. Valentinian, in his 
military and provincial arrangements and conduct, 
proved a worthy successor to Julian. He fixed his 
residence for a time at Paris, and laboured as Julian 
had done for the relief of the burdens and difficulties 
of the Gauls. His great achievement was to 
strengthen the frontier by means of strong fortifica- 
tions at important points on the border rivers. He 



346 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

undertook also some active operations into the ene- 
mies' country, and made Roman arms respected on 
the Mosel and the Neckar. But the task of Imperial 
defence was becoming harder, as in the course of the 
great migrations other barbarian hosts forced their 
way on to the scene, especially when the Burgun- 
dians began to appear on the Upper Rhine, and the 
Goths on the Danube. The plan was tried of set- 
ting one tribe against another, but this policy could 
not permanently lead to the maintenance of peace. 
When, just after the death of Valentinian, his less 
warlike brother arranged for the settlement of a large 
body of Goths within the territory of the Empire, 
they gained a foothold of which even the successful 
campaigns of Theodosius could not deprive them. 
Meantime, the great increase of the barbarian ele- 
ment in the Roman army, which Julian had felt it 
necessary to retain throughout his wars, continued 
to influence for evil and for good the fortunes of the 
Roman world. Perhaps the wisest of rulers and the 
best-governed of states could not for long have pre- 
vented the irruption of the barbarians into the land 
of the South. Yet, in estimating the worth of what 
was accomplished by Julian and by those that fol- 
lowed in his steps, we must remember that here 
every delay was a clear gain. For the longer the 
barbarians were kept at bay on the borders of the 
Empire, while their ablest men, in military employ- 
ment in the Roman armies or in private intercourse 
with the officials of the Imperial Court, were learning 
something of organised enterprise and civilised life, 
the more likely were they to respect and to spare 



Outcome of yuliaris Enterprises. 347 

some relics of the ancient civilisation when the 
power over it all should fall to their share. 

In the civil Government and the arrangements of 
the Court no violent reaction followed the death of 
Julian. It would seem indeed that the brother-em- 
perors, who, by the embellishment of his tomb, 
showed some respect for his memory, desired in 
many respects to follow his policy. Both were ac- 
customed to plain living and averse to the oriental- 
ising tendencies which had been conspicuous in the 
palace since the days of Diocletian. Of course there 
were sowers of discord eager to incriminate and sup- 
plant many of the persons who had stood highest in 
Julian's favour, and Valens at least was not deaf to 
suggestions of treachery. The dissatisfaction felt 
by those whose day was over found its champion in 
Procopius, who, after performing the last offices to 
Julian's body at Tarsus, had been obliged to lead 
an obscure and afterwards a wandering life to avoid 
the hostile efforts of the eastern Emperor. After a 
time, he appeared at Constantinople, during the ab- 
sence of Valens in Asia, and by bribery or persua- 
sion obtained from a portion of the soldiery recog- 
nition as his cousin's successor on the Imperial 
throne. Yet he seems to have had no large follow- 
ing. The best of the military officers, including Sal- 
lust, were loyal to Valens. The action of Procopius, 
in attracting to his cause the Goths and other bar- 
barians, seems hardly worthy of one on whom Julian 
had cast his mantle ; and the support of the widow 
of Constantius, whose little daughter was made a 
figure-head in the wild enterprise, cannot have lent 



348 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

much strength to his cause. It is even uncertain 
how far we may take Procopius to represent the old 
Hellenic principles in religious matters. He achieved 
some successes, but was finally captured in Phrygia 
and put to death with great cruelty. He was a silent 
man, whose intentions were not widely divulged, 
but we cannot suppose that he ever had much 
chance of showing himself the heir of Julian's ideas. 
Little Constantia was married to Valentinian's son 
Gratian, and thus some semblance of relationship 
between the late and the present dynasty was 
maintained. 

But apart from personal changes, the general 
objects of Julian's Government were still kept in 
view, and the legislation of his successors shows the 
same desire to keep the Curiales to their duty and 
to check the abuses of officials, especially in regard 
to the post-system. But it also exposes the diffi- 
culty of achieving any sound and lasting reforms. 
Certainly within fifty years of the death of Constan- 
tine, under the weak sons of Theodosius, the com- 
plaints made of Court extravagance and official greed 
and oppression furnish a proof of the insufficiency 
of legislation alone to check a corruption which has 
eaten its way into the heart of the administration 
and of society generally. At the same time the im- 
pulse which Julian had given towards the encourage- 
ment of the arts and sciences did not cease to act, 
but showed itself in the liberal provisions for higher 
teaching in the University of Constantinople, and in 
the privileges which were continued to the medical 
profession. 



Outcome of yulians Enterprises. 349 

Even in religious affairs there was not at once a 
total change of policy, certainly no return to the 
lines followed by Constantius. Jovian, Valentinian, 
and their successors were known to be Christians, 
though we have no ground for ranking them among 
the sufferers from the Pagan reaction. The fact that 
their religious belief did not materially hinder their 
recognition by the army and the subjects generally 
(except in the doubtful case of those who adopted 
the cause of Procopius), points to a want of power 
or of zeal among the worshippers of the ancient 
Gods. Nevertheless, prudence dictated a policy of 
comparative toleration. Jovian restored the Chris- 
tian symbols in the army and issued a decree for 
protecting women who had devoted themselves to a 
religious profession. But he, as we have seen, did 
not scruple to allow sacrifices and the prophecies of 
the haruspices. Under Valentinian and Valens, 
the clergy gradually recovered their former privi- 
leges, and Christian teachers again received the 
right of educating the young. Sunday and Easter 
were again recognised as holidays, temple property 
was resumed — not, however, for the use of the 
Church but for that of the State — and sacrifices 
which involved bloodshed as well as nocturnal meet- 
ings were prohibited. Yet even here concessions 
were made to local popular feeling ; thus the Eleu- 
sinian Mysteries were excepted from the prohibi- 
tion, and for a time the State professed the inten- 
tion of protecting the liberty and security of men of 
all religions. Where popular fanaticism raged high, 
this was of course often impossible. Many ancient 



35° Julian, Philosopher and Emperor, 

buildings and statues fell a prey to iconoclastic zeal, 
and many devotees suffered, on the charge of sor- 
cery, the penalty of their constancy to ancient and 
occult rites. It was naturally the Neo-Platonists 
whom the latter kind of persecution chiefly affected, 
and the jealous suspicions of the Emperor Valens 
rendered it more active, and brought Maximus and 
perhaps a few others of his stamp to a martyr's 
grave. But in general Hellenism was not capable of 
inspiring a desire of martyrdom. Old superstitions 
might linger long among the pagani of outlying dis- 
tricts, and old associations might, in the great cities, 
retard the disuse of ceremonies which had been fol- 
lowed from time immemorial. Yet, when Gratian 
and after him Theodosius, took a more decided line, 
shutting the temples and forbidding heathen rites, 
no very serious opposition seems to have been en- 
countered, nor any large dissatisfied minority left 
with a grievance. In all probability, the stringency 
of the acts was often eluded, unless, as in Egypt, 
excited monks and a superstitious rabble joined in 
the hue-and-cry. A stage was marked when, under 
Gratian, the Altar of Victory was a second time 
removed from the Senate House of Rome, a pro- 
ceeding which led to a controversy in which were 
heard, perhaps for the first time, and originally on 
the side of Catholic orthodoxy, arguments for the 
complete separation of secular politics and religious 
observance. 

Meantime, Julian's policy of non-intervention in 
the conflict of parties within the Church, was for 
the most part adhered to, till the civil arm inter- 



His Position in History. 351 

vened to give the final determination to what had 
been already practically decided by other means 
than those of mere terrorism. Jovian, while fav- 
ouring Athanasius, who returned to Alexandria and 
died there in peace, was unwilling to attend to the 
demands of the bishops of the Nicene party, who 
wished for a definite declaration in their favour. 
Thus he answered their demands by general expres- 
sions of good-will towards all who sought the peace 
of the Church. Valentinian likewise, though con- 
fessing the Homoousian belief, preferred to leave 
ecclesiastical affairs to ecclesiastical management. 
" I am but one of the laity," he said, when asked to 
meet a synod of bishops for deliberation on doc- 
trinal matters ; " let the bishops, to whom such mat- 
ters appertain, assemble where they please." He was 
not, however, always consistent in maintaining an 
indifferent attitude, and his brother is sometimes 
represented as an active persecutor. But though 
Valens was baptised by an Arian bishop, and pur- 
sued a policy which incurred great unpopularity 
among Nicenes and semi-Nicenes alike, it is uncertain 
how far we are to regard his measures as aimed 
againstany religious party as such, and how far as dic- 
tated by a desire to check the growth of such an ascetic 
withdrawal from the world, and consequent loss to 
the State of the services of its citizens, as was closely 
associated with opinions of the leading Homoousians. 
Meantime, those who could accept in some form the 
creed of Nicaea drew together. The schism at Antioch 
was healed. Of factions we still hear much, but 
except among the barbarian Goths, Arianism seems 



352 yulian. Philosopher and Emperor. 

not to have had much vitality, and leaders in Church 
and State could reasonably hope for the achievement 
of ecclesiastical unity. The efforts of some leading 
minds among churchmen, notably of Ambrose of 
Milan, whose influence with Gratian and Theodosius 
was very considerable, tended in the same direction. 
Finally, after his victories over the Goths, Theodo- 
sius, with a soldier's love of order and regularity, 
issued edicts ordering all men to accept the Nicene 
faith and forbidding heretical assemblies in the 
towns. Julian's policy of toleration was over, but 
possibly, while it lasted, it had given scope to the 
principle of the survival of the fittest. 

It is not, however, by what he accomplished, but 
by what he tried to do and by what he was, that 
Julian raised himself to a position among those who 
must ever rivet the eyes of mankind. As, in this 
sketch of his life and doings, our chief object had 
been to portray his character and the relation in 
which he stood to the movements of his time, a fur- 
ther examination of his mind and principles would 
be superfluous. The reader has, it is hoped, material 
for forming a final judgment, such as to men of an 
earlier generation was well-nigh impossible. Julian 
has been hated by those whose religious enthusiasm 
was near akin to his own. He has been admired by 
those whose scepticism would have aroused in him 
the deepest abhorrence. He has been represented as 
an unpractical " Romantiker," and as a first-class 
general and statesman. If we look at him impar- 
tially and yet with the sympathetic understanding 
that we can only obtain after trying in imagination 



His Position in History. 353 

to realise his point of view, we see in him, not a 
genius of the first rank in statesmanship, strategy, 
literature, or religious philosophy, not a character 
unequalled in virtue and strength, but a man who 
did something, because of his earnest devotion to 
his ideals, and who would have done more if he had 
been gifted with a surer insight and had moved at 
a less feverish pace. He was a good king and a strong 
warrior, as his epitaph said. Yet his conduct at 
Antioch showed him unable to meet all the require- 
ments of a disordered state, and his neglect of pre- 
cautions, especially in the Persian War, prevents wz 
from ranking him among the great generals of the 
world. He wrote in what, for his age, may be re- 
garded as a pure style, but he wrote too rapidly to 
produce any great work. He was a thinker, and 
often throws a ray of clear light on matters obscured 
by convention and prejudice, but his mind was not 
calm and collected enough for us to rank him among 
great philosophers. His personal character is most 
attractive. He had warm affections, a strong desire 
to do justice, an abiding sense of moral responsi- 
bility. He was, moreover, of a singularly trans- 
parent nature, living (when the evil days of forced 
dissimulation were over) always above-board, hating 
secrets, proclaiming in season and out of season the 
aspirations of his heart and the principles of his life. 
Yet, with all his love of truth and goodness, there 
were some potent types which he was quite incapa- 
ble of recognising. With all his desire for equity 
he could not always be fair to those whom he could 
not understand. In spite of his realisation of the 



354 Julian, Philosopher and Emperor. 

littleness of human effort in the universal system of 
nature and man, he could not see how powerless 
were his own endeavours to oppose a barrier to the 
incoming tide. 

Yet Julian is one to whom much may be forgiven 
because he loved much. If, turning aside from the 
events of his short and chequered career, we look to 
the main principle by which he was throughout 
guided, we see that it was an entire devotion to the 
Greek idea of thought and life, a settled determina- 
tion to prevent, so far as in him lay, the destruction, 
by what he regarded as barbarous and degrading 
forces, of that fair fabric of ancient civilisation under 
which men had learned to venerate beauty and 
order, to aim at a reasonable, self-contained life, and 
to live in orderly society under intelligible laws and 
humane institutions. And who shall say that this 
principle is an unworthy one, or that a life lived in 
obedience to its dictates could fail to achieve some 
good results besides those that may appear on the 
surface ? 

And after all, that cause has ultimately triumphed, 
not by the suppression of Christian institutions, as 
Julian vainly hoped, still less by the extinction of 
the Christian spirit as a motive power in the world, 
but by the permeation of society, speculation, and 
practical life with the most permanent elements of 
Greek culture. If Julian was mistaken in thinking 
that the religious ideas lately come from Palestine 
would soon pale before the revived glories of Greece, 
no less short-sighted were those who thought that 
Hellenism was buried in the Emperor's grave. Some- 



His Position in History. 



355 



times for better, sometimes for worse, the two streams 
have blended, till it is now hard to conceive what 
either might have been apart from the other. We 
cannot feel that the triumphal cry of Julian's enemies, 
which has seemed ever to echo round his death-bed, 
has been fully justified at the bar of history. It is 
the Christ, not the Galilaean, that has conquered. 

FINIS. 





Coin of Valens. 
Reverse, Spes R.P. Valens and Valentinian seated : between them a shield, in- 
scribed Vot. V. Mvl. X. which rests on the head of a smaller figure. 



INDEX. 



Adler, Rev. Michael, on Julian 

and the Jews, 267 
^Edesius, the Sophist, lectures at 

Pergamum, 60 
Aetius, Bishop, 233 et seq. 
Agenaric or Serapis, Alleman 

chief, 107 
Agrippina, see Cologne. 
Alexander of Hierapolis, made 

Governor of Syria, 311 
Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, 

his part in Arian controversy, 

17 

Alexandria, supplied with corn 
by Emperor, 10 ; mental tone 
of, 17 ; philosophy of, 183 ; 
synod in, 237 

Alexandrians, letter to, 237, 238 

Allemanni, the, Consta'ntius 
against, 81 ; their encroach- 
ments, 98 ; attack Julian on 
the march, 100 ; are defeated, 
ib. ; make a great invasion, 
106 ; defeated at Strasburg, 
107, 108 ; agree to truce, 109 

Alypius of Antioch, 269 

Amida, taken by Persians, 130 ; 
receives people of Nisibis, 342 

Ammianus Marcellinus, his ac- 
quaintance with Julian and 
Gallus, 39 ; with Ursicinus in 
Antioch, etc., 43, 75, 84 ; re- 
marks on Julian, 139, 249, 



311 

228 



on journeys of Bishops, 



Anicii, the, related to Julian, 26 
Annibalianus, inheritance, 28 ; 

murder, 29 ; title, 47 
Antioch, character, troubles of, 

under Gallus, 41 et seq. ; 

Julian's stay in, 299 et seq. ; 

Jovian in, 342 ; Valens resides 

at, 345 
Antoninus, his desertion and 

flight, 128 et seq. 
Arbetio, Consul for, 355, his 

craftiness, 75 ; in Allemannic 

War, 82 ; on judicial commis- 
sion, 165 
Arelatum, see Aries. 
Argentoratum, see Strasburg. 
Arianism, unlike modern Unitari- 

anism, 23 (see under Arius). 
Arius, his doctrine, 18 ; con- 
demned and banished, 19; his 

death, 20 
Aries, Constantius at, 42, 81 
Arsaces, King of Armenia, won 

over by Constantius, 148 ; 

Julian's hopes from, 316, 319 ; 

does not send troops, 326 ; his 

captivity and death, 343, 344 
Arsacius, high-priest of Galatia, 

Julian's letter to, 202 
Artemius, Governor of Egypt, 

236 et seq. 
Athanasius, his belief, character, 

and opposition to Arius, 17 et 



357 



353 



Index. 



seq. ; withstands the Emperor, 
20 ; banishment and restora- 
tion, 21 ; so-called creed of, 
23 ; his fortunes under Julian, 
235 et seq. ; his return to Alex- 
andria, 351 

Athenians, letter to the, 87, 152 

Athens, philosophical chairs at, 
52 ; university life in, 67 ; 
Julian sent thither, 77 ; his 
feeling for, 153 

Attuarian, see Franks. 

Atys, worship of, 176, 187 

Augustodunum, see Autun. 

Aurelian, Emperor, inaugurator 
of changes, 2 ; defeats Alle- 
manni, 81 

Autun, insurrection at, 31 ; at- 
tacked by barbarians, Julian 
in, 99 

B 

Barbatio, magister peditum sent 
against Laeti, 105 ; thwarts 
Julian, 106 ; returns to Court, 
107 ; his death, 129 

Basil, fellow-student of Julian at 
Athens, 66 ; protected by Gre- 
gory, 68 

Basilina, Julian's mother, her 
family, education, and death, 
24, 27 

Bercea, Julian in, 317 

Besancon, Julian in, 150 

Bezabda (Phcenice), besieged, 
147,148 

Bithynia, Julian's estate in, 26, 37 

Bostra, letter to the people of, 
224, 227 

Brumath (Brucomagus), taken by 
Julian, from the Allemanni, 
100 

Byzantines, letter to the, 227 



Cabillona, see Chalons-sur-Saone. 
Caesar, meaning of the title, 11, 
12 



Caesarea in Cappadocia, outbreak 
in, 229 

" Caesars," the, of Julian, 213, 
271 et seq. 

Callixena, priestess of Demeter, 
Julian's letter to, 195 

Caracalla, his act conferring 
franchise, 10 

Carrhae, abandoned to the Per- 
sians, 130 ; Julian's review in, 
3l8 

Carthage, disputed election to 
the bishopric of, 16 

Cassianus, dux of Mesopotamia, 
ambassador to Sapor, 126 

Celsus, friend of Julian, 298 

Chalons-sur-Saone, meeting at, 81 

Chamavi, see Franks. 

Charietto, enters Roman service, 
112 

Chionites, helping Sapor, 126, 127 

Chnodomar, King of the Alle- 
manni, 107 ; surrenders, 108 

Chrysanthius, pupil of yEdesius, 
61 

Chrysostom, his opinion of the 
Antiochenes, 310, 313 

Circesium, Julian in, 319 

Claudius II., his government, 6 

Clergy, persecuted by Diocletian, 
13 ; letters of Constantine to, 
15 ; their privileges, 16 

Cologne, Silvanus in, 83 ; taken 
by Barbarians, 90 

Comites, their position, 9 

Como, Julian sent to, 77 

Constance, Lake, fightingnear, 82 

Constans, Emperor, 28 ; defeats 
brother Constantine and seizes 
dominions, 30 

Constantina, daughter of Con- 
stantine the Great, married to 
Gallus, her character and in- 
fluence, 40 et seq.; her death, 43 

Constantine the Great, his gen- 
eral policy, 2, 8, 9 et seq., 219 ; 
at Nicaea, 19 ; fluctuates be- 
tween parties, 19 et seq. ; his 
death, 28 ; Julian on, 278 



Inch 



ex. 



359 



Constantine the Younger, succes- 
sion, 28 ; death, 29 

Constantinople, importance of its 
foundation, 10 ; Arius in, 20 ; 
Julian brought up in, 33 ; Gal- 
lusin, 43; beautified by Julian, 
167 ; learning encouraged in, 

34 8 
Constantius Chlorus, his religion, 

13 

Constantius (Julius), father of 
Julian, 25, 26 

Constantius II., Emperor, 28, 
29 ; his first Persian War, 30 
et seq. ; makes Gallus Ccesar, 
33 ; his measures against Gal- 
lus, 42 et seq. ; his character, 
74 ; his campaign against the 
Allemanni, 81 ; he makes Julian 
Ccesar, 85 et seq.; his charge to 
Julian, 96 ; against Allemanni 
again, 105 ; visits Rome, 105, 
119 et seq.; takes credit for 
battle of Strasburg, 109 ; ap- 
pealed to by Florentius, 111 ; 
fights against Sarmatians, 123 ; 
recalls some of Julian's troops, 
131 et seq. ; correspondence 
with Julian, 138 et seq. ; his 
campaign of 360, 146 et seq. ; 
marries Faustina, 148 ; last ill- 
ness, death, character, 160 et 
seq.- 

Crates the Cynic, 287 

Ctesiphon, Sapor receives mes- 
sengers in, 128 ; Julian ap- 
proaches and leaves, 324 etseq. 

Curiales, see Decuriones. 

Cursus publictis, 254 et seq. 

Cybele, worship of, 176, 187. 

Cynics, their character and his- 
tory, 283 et seq. 

Cyril of Alexandria, his confuta- 
tion of Julian, 207 

D 

Dagalaif , set over Julian's guards, 
156 ; surprises Lucillianus in 
Sirmium, 157 ; in the East, 339 



Dalmatius, half-brother to Con- 
stantine, 28 

Dalmatian, son of the above, his 
share in the Imperial domin- 
ions, 28 ; murdered, 29 

Daphne, temple at, destroyed by 
fire, 305 

Decentius, tribune, sent to with- 
draw troops, 132, 135 ; his 
escape, 137 

Decuriones, their duties, 227, 

255, 348 

Dioceses, administrative areas, 9 

Diocletian, character of his policy, 
2, 7 et seq., 94 

Diogenes, 285 

Domitian, sent to recall Gallus, 
murdered, 42 

Donatists, appeal to secular au- 
thority, 16 

Duces, their authority, 9 

Dynamius, an underling of Ar- 
betio, 83 

E 

Ecdicius, Prsefect of the East, 
236 et seq. 

Eleusinian Mysteries, Julian ini- 
tiated into, 61 

Eleusius, Bishop, 229 

Ephesus, Gallus said to have 
studied at, 37 ; Julian in, 52 

Epicureans, unfairly treated by 
fourth-century philosophers, 
58, 200, 292 

Epictetus, 288 

Epictetus, Bishop, mediating be- 
tween Constantius and Julian, 
142 

Eunapius, his Lives of Philos- 
ophers, 61-67 ; kindness of 
Proseresius to, 68 

Eusebia, Empress, her kindness 
to Julian and general influence, 
74, 75, 87, 104 ; her conduct 
towards Helen, 92, 93 ; her 
death, 141 

Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia 
and afterwards of Constanti- 



,6o 



Index. 



nople, his part in Arian con- 
troversy, 19 et seq. ; his share 
in Julian's education. 

Eusebius, pupil of ^Edesius, 61 

Eustathius the philosopher, sent 
on embasssy to Sapor, 127 

Eutherius, sent by Julian to Im- 
perial Court. 

Euzoius, Bishop of Antioch, bap- 
tises Constantius, 160 



Faustina, married to Constantius, 
148 ; helps in rebellion of Pro- 
copius, 347 

Florentius, Praetorian Praefect, 
at Strasburg, 107 ; opposes 
Julian's reforms, no ; advises 
withdrawal of troops, 131 ; es- 
capes to Court, 134 ; Consul, 
164 ; his escape, 165 

Franks, the, early history of, 98 ; 
give up Cologne and sign a 
treaty, 100 ; a company of, be- 
sieged and captured, 109 ; 
Saliaus and Chamavi defeated, 
in ; Attuarians defeated, 150 



Galerius, against the Christians, 

13 

Galla, first wife of Constantius, 
her death, 74 

Gallus, Julian's brother, 29; made 
Ccesar, 40 ; his troubles, mis- 
government and death, 41-44 

Gaudentius sent to Africa, 159 

Gauls, the, defined, 96 et seq. 

George of Cappadocia, 235 et seq. 

Gibbon, character of his work, 3, 
23 ; his definition of the gov- 
ernment of Augustus, 6 

Gregory Nazianzen, his state- 
ments about Julian, 51, 79 ; 
with Julian at Athens, 66, 67 ; 
his friendship with Themistius, 
66 ; protects Basil, 68 ; his 



attitude towards philosophers, 
173 ; his account of Julian's 
projects, 204 ; of persecutions, 
226, 230 ; an attempt to re- 
build Temple at Jerusalem, 
265 ; remarks on Julian's 
funeral rites, 342 
Gundobadus, King of the Alle- 
manni, 81 



H 



Hecebolius, the Sophist, 241 
Helen the Elder, a Christian, 14 
Helen the Younger, her marriage 
to Julian, 89, 90 ; her death, 

I5i 

Helios, see under Mithras. 

Heraclius the Cynic, Julian's 
controversy with, 280 et seq. 

Hierapolis in Syria, Constantius 
in, 149 ; Julian in, 318 

Himerius the Sophist, his dis- 
courses, 54-58 ; his address to 
unpunctual students, 68, 69 ; 
comes to Julian, 166 

Homceans, 231 et seq. 

Homoousion, adopted as symbol 
at Nicsea, 19 

Hormisdas the Persian, in Rome 
with Constantius, 122 ; in 
Julian's army, 297 ; Julian's 
schemes for him, 316 ; his 
narrow escape, 320 

Hortar, barbarian chief surren- 
ders, 112 



Italy, obliged to pay land-tax, 10 

J 

Jamblichus of Chalcis, influence 

of his works on Julian, 174, 

181, 191 
Jews, Julian's arguments against, 

209 et seq. ; policy towards, 

262 et seq. 



Index. 



;6i 



Jovianus, Praefector Domesticus, 
brings home body of Constan- 
tius, 162 ; made Emperor, 340 ; 
his march west and death, 340- 

343 

Jovinus, leads forces through 
North Italy, 157 ; measures of 
Jovian against him, 345 
Jovius, in Julian's army, 157 
Julian, his relation to his times, 
4 et seq. ; birth, name, and 
parentage, 25; early education, 
2 7» 33 et seq.; intercourse with 
Gallus, 45, 49, 77 ; his dis- 
simulation, 50 ; religious atti- 
tude in 350, 50 et seq. ; his 
university life, 52 et seq. ; pre- 
served from logomachy, 59 ; 
seeks the philosophers of Asia 
Minor, 60 ; initiated into Eleu- 
sinian Mysteries, 61 ; sum- 
moned to Milan, his life there, 
76, 77 ; sent to Como and to 
Athens, 77 ; his personal ap- 
pearance, 79 ; summoned to 
Milan, 85 ; vacillations, 86 et 
seq. ; made Ccesar, 89 ; mar- 
ried, starts for Gaul, 89 et seq.; 
his campaign of 356, 99 et seq.; 
winter occupations, 102 et seq.; 
his campaign of 357, 105 et 
seq. ; winter in Paris, reforms, 
109 et seq. ; his campaign of 
358, in et seq.; of 359, 112 
et seq. ; difficulties with troops 
and elevation to Empire, 134 
et seq. ; negotiates with Con- 
stantius, 138 etseq.; his cam- 
paign of 360, 150 et seq.; divi- 
nation, letters, 152 ; his fifth 
crossing of Rhine, march east- 
wards, 165 et seq. ; hears of 
death of Constantius, 162 ; en- 
ters Constantinople and begins 
reforms, 163 et seq.; beautifies 
Constantinople, 167 ; his re- 
ligious and philosophical be- 
liefs, 169 et seq. ; his religious 
reforms and controversial writ- 



ings, 193 et seq. ; his policy 
against the Christians, 223 et 
seq. ; his legislative and ad- 
ministrative reforms, 245 et 
seq. ; character of his literary 
works, 268 et seq. ; his last 
campaign, 314 et seq. ; his 
wound and death, 331 ; his 
burial and epitaph, 342 ; re- 
view of his life and character, 
352 et seq. 

Julian the elder, uncle to the 
Emperor, 26 ; his religion, 47 ; 
his death, 311 

Juthungi, tribe of Allemanni, de- 
feated, in 



Laeti, attack Lyons, 105 ; de- 
feated by Julian, 106 

Leonas, sent to Julian by Con- 
stantius, 141 

Leontius, Prsefect of Rome, 84 

Libanius of Antioch, his charac- 
ter and career, 62 et seq. ; his 
remarks on Julian, 49, 77, 78, 
131, 249, 257, 261, 322, 334; 
relations with Julian, 300 etseq. 

Liberius, Bishop of Rome, his 
disgrace, 84 

Libinio, sent against Allemanni, 
154 ; defeated at Sanctio, 155 

Limigantes, war with Sarmatians, 
123 et seq. 

Lucillianus, captured, 157 

Lupicinus in Britain, 132 ; com- 
missioned to bring troops to 
Persia, 131, 132 

Lutetia, see Paris. 

Lyons, Magnentius defeated at, 
32 ; attacked by Laeti, 105 



M 



Macellum in Cappadocia, Julian 
and Gallus forced to stay in, 38 

Magnentius, his insurrection, 31 
et seq., 75, 80; his coinage, 47 



362 



Index. 



Magnus, the rhetorical physician 
of Antioch, 55, 56, go 

Mamertinus the rhetorician, made 
Consul, 167 

Manichees, persecuted by Dio- 
cletian, 12 

Maogamalcha, siege of, 322 

Maranga, battle of, 329 

Marcellus, magister equitum in 
Gaul, 95-99 ; his neglect of 
duty and recall, 101 

Marcus, Bishop of Arethusa, 230 

Mardonius, tutor to Julian and 
his mother, 27, 33 et seq. 

Maximian, associated with Dio- 
cletian, 11 ; his abdication, 11 

Maximus of Ephesus, the Sophist, 
his character and career, 59 et 
seq. ; received at Constanti- 
nople, 166 ; Julian's letter to, 
169 ; present at Julian's death, 
333 ; martyred under Valens, 
35p 

Maximus, Senator of Rome, made 
Praefect, 158, 159 

Mercurius, " Count of Dreams," 
76 

Meuse, line of, fortified by Julian , 
in 

Milan, a residence of Diocletian, 
10 ; edict of, 15, 224 ; insur- 
gents brought to; 76 ; Julian 
summoned to, 76 ; Constantius, 
in, 82 ; Julian made Ccesar in, 
89 

Misopogon, written by Julian, 
308 et seq. 

Mithras, worship of, 16, 151, 175 
ei seq., 212, 278 

Mursa, battle of, 32, 82 

Musonianus, Praetorian Praefect 
of the East, 80; sent to nego- 
tiate with Sapor, 126 



N 



Naargamalcha, cleared for ships, 

323 
Nebridius, made Praetorian Prae- 



fect, 141, 142 ; refuses to 
swear loyalty to Julian, 156 

Nepotianus, his revolt, 31, 32 

Neumann, Dr., his edition of the 
Contra Christianos, 207, 217 

Nevitta, set over Julian's cavalry, 
156; set to guard Pass of Succi , 
158 ; in the East, 339 

Nicaea, Council of, 19 ; Julian 
in, 297 ; earthquake in, 306 

Nicomedia, a residence of Dio- 
cletian, 10 ; Constantine dies 
there, 28 ; Julian partly edu- 
cated in, 33, 40, 52 ; visited 
by him, 297 ; another earth- 
quake in, 306 

Nisibis, siege of, 30 ; fortified 
by Ursicinus, 130 ; given up 
to the Persians, 341 et seq. 







Organ, Julian's epigram on the, 

271, 293 
Oribazius, physician and friend 

of Julian, accompanies him to 

Gaul, 90 

P 

Paris, Julian's affection for, 109 

ei seq. 
Paul, " the Chain," 76, 126, 164 
Pergamum, Julian in, 52 ; a 

centre of Greek thought and 

society, 60 
Pessinus, Julian in, 297 
Petavio, Gallus arrested at, 44 
Petit de Juleville, his writings, 71 
Petulantes and Celtae, 131, 143, 

154 
Philagrius, secretary to Julian, 

155 
Pirisabora, resists Julian, 320 
Plotinus, founder of Neo-Plato- 

nism, 183 
Pola, Gallus murdered at, 44 
Porphyry, his writings against 

Christians, 206 
Presides, over Provinces, 9 



Index. 



363 



Praetorian Praefects, their author- 
ity, 8, 9 

Priscus, the Sophist, comes to 
Julian, 166; by Julian's death- 
bed, 333 

Proaeresius, the Sophist, his rhe- 
torical triumphs, 56, 57 ; his 
kindliness, 68 ; resigns pro- 
fessoriate, 241 

Procopius, sent to Armenia, 319 ; 
rejoins army, 341 ; takes body 
of Julian to Tarsus, 342 ; his 
revolt, 347 el seq. 

Pylae, Julian at, 298 

Q 

Quad:, the, war with, 129 et seq. 



R 



Reims, Julian in, 99 

Rhetoric, its importance in edu- 
cation, 53 

Rhine, Roman troops reach, 81 ; 
fortresses on the, taken by 
Julian, 100 ; and rebuilt, 106 ; 
expeditions across, 109,112,150 

Rome, no longer the centre of 
the political system, 2 ; tumult 
in, 84 ; Constantius in, 85, 117, 
120 

Rufinus Apparitor, 76 ; in Alle- 
mannic War, 81 ; Praetorian 
Praefects in Gaul, 95 



Sabinianus, thwarts Ursicinus, 
129, 130 

Salians, see Franks. 

Sallustius, with Julian in Gaul, 
95 ; recalled, 112 ; made Prae- 
fect of Gauls, 156 ; Consul 
with Julian, 301, 314 ; advises 
against Persian campaign, 315 

Sallustius Secundus, Praefect of 
the East, 164 ; with Julian at 
his death, 333 ; receives offer of 
imperial dignity, 339, 343 



Sapor, King of Persia, his early 
history, 30 ; first war with 
Constantius, 30, 31 ; his move- 
ments in the East, 80 ; his 
negotiations with Constantius, 
126 ; his chivalrous character, 
129 ; his campaign of 360, 146 
el seq.; advances against Julian, 
328 ; rejoices at his death, con- 
tinues to harass army, 340 et 
seq.; makes truce with Romans, 
341 ; invades Armenia, 343 

Sarmatians, the, war with, 129 el 
seq. 

Saxons, early abodes, 99 

Schiller, Hermann, his history of 
Empire, 23 

Sebastian sent to Armenia, 319 ; 
rejoins army, 341 

Senate of Rome, its decline in 
power, 10 ; Julian's appeal to, 
152 

Sens (Senonas), Julian's winter 
quarters in, 100 ; Julian be- 
sieged in, 101 

Severus, sent out to replace Mar- 
cellus, 101 ; helps to defeat 
Chamavi, in; wavers in 
fidelity, 112 

Silvanus the Frank, his insurrec- 
tion, 82 et seq., 90 

Singara, battle of, 30 ; besieged 
by Sapor, 146 

Sintula, 134, 138 

Sirmium, seditious dinner at, 76 ; 
Constantius at, 123 ; rallying 
point for Julian's forces, taken, 
157 ; mutiny in, 159 

Sosipatra of Pergamum, centre of 
a theosophical circle, 60 

Stoics, their relation to the 
Cynics, 287 

Strasburg, battle of, 107, 108 

Suamar, King of Allemanni, sues 
for peace, 112 

Succi, Pass of, Constantius tries 
to occupy, 149 

Symmacus, Senator of Rome, 
158 



,64 



Index. 



Tamsapor, general of Sapor, 126 

Tarsus, place of Julian's burial, 
342 

Taurus consul, 164 

Tertullus, Praefect of Rome, 159 

Thalassius, Praetorian Praefect, a 
spy on Gallus, 42 

Themistius the Orator, his re- 
ligious attitude, 65 et seq., 219 

Theodosian Code, 227, 238, 248, 
257 et seq. 

Theodosius, division on his death, 
11 

Thracians, petition from, 259 

Tillemont, value of his work, 23 

Timaeus of Plato, quoted by 
Julian against Genesis, 210 

Turin, Julian at, 90 

Tyre, Synod of, 20 



U 



Ursicinus, his mission to Antioch, 
recalled, 43 ; falsely accused, 
75 ; his mission against Silva- 
nus, 83 et seq. ; with Julian, 
99 ; his Eastern campaign, 128 
et seq. 

Ursulus, finance minister, exe- 
cuted, 164 



V 



Vadomarius, King of the Alle- 
manni, 81 ; his negotiations 
with Constantius, 154 ; taken 
captive, 155 

Valens, Emperor, 343 ; causes 
death of Maximus, 62 ; argu- 
ment of Themistius against his 
persecution, 66, 361 

Valentia, troops at, 81 

Valentinian, fails to defend a 
post and is accused to Con- 
stantius, 106 ; made Emperor, 
343 ; his rule in Gaul, 345 et 
seq. ; his ecclesiastical policy, 

351 .. 
Vetranio, his revolt, 31 
Vicars, rulers of Dioceses, 9 
Victor, one of Julian's officers, 

297, 322 et seq., 339 
Vienne, Julian in, 91, 99, 150 ; 

Florentius in, 134 

W 

Wiegand, his study of the Battle 
of Strasburg, 116 



Zizais, made King of the Sarma- 
tians, 123 








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IDeroes of tbe IRations, 

EDITED BY 

EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 



A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work 
of a number of representative historical characters about 
whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations 
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With the life of each typical character will be presented 
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Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. Clark 
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Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protestantism for Exist- 
ence. By C. R. L. Fletcher, M. A., late Fellow of All Souls College, 
Oxford. 

Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A., 
Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 

Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilisation. By 
Thomas Hodgkin, author of " Italy and Her Invaders," etc. 

Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England. By H. R. Fox- 
Bourne, author of " The Life of John Locke," etc. 

Julius Caesar, and the Organisation of the Roman Empire. By 
W. Warde Fowler, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. 

John Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen and First of the English Re- 
formers. By Lewis Sergeant, author of " New Greece," etc. 

Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler, and the Military Supremacy of 
Revolutionary France. By W. O'Connor Morris, sometime 
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Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots in France. By P. F. Willert, 
M.A., Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 

Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic. By J. L. Strachan 
Davidson, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 

Abraham Lincoln, and the Downfall of American Slavery. By 
Noah Brooks. 

Prince Henry (of Portugal) the Navigator, and the Age of Dis- 
covery. By C. R. Beazley, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. 

Julian the Philosopher, and the Last Struggle of Paganism against 
Christianity. By Alice Gardner, Lecturer on Ancient History in 
Newnham College. 

Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. By Arthur 
Hassall, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. 

To be followed by : 

Saladin, the Crescent and the Cross. By Stanley Lane-Poole. 

Joan of Arc. By Mrs. Oliphant. 

The Cid Campeador, and the Waning of the Crescent in the West. 

By H. Butler Clarke, Wadham College, Oxford. 
Charlemagne, the Reorganiser of Europe. By Prof. George L. 

Burr, Cornell University. 
Moltke, and the Founding of the German Empire. By Spenser 

Wilkinson. 
Oliver Cromwell, and the Rule of the Puritans in England. By 

Charles Firth, Balliol College, Oxford. 
Alfred the Great, and the First Kingdom in England. By F. York 

Powell, M.A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. 
Marlborough, and England as a Military Power. By C. W. C. 

Oman, A.M., Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 
Frederic the Second, the Wonder of the World. By A. L. Smith, of 

Balliol College, Oxford. 
Charles the Bold, and the Attempt to Found a Middle Kingdom. 

By R. Lodge, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. 
Alexander the Great, and the Extension of Greek Rule and of 

Greek Ideas. By Prof. Benjamin I. Wheeler, Cornell University. 

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In the story form the current of each national life is 
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It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to 
enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them 
before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and 
struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused 
themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with 
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looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from 
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historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. 

The subjects of the different volumes have been planned 
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epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will 
present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in 



the great STORY OF THE NATIONS ; but it is, of course, 
not always practicable to issue the several volumes in 
their chronological order. 

The "Stories" are printed in good readable type, and 
in handsome i2mo form. They are adequately illustrated 
and furnished with maps and indexes. Price, per vol., 
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The following volumes are now ready (March, 1895): 

THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. 
" " ROME. Arthur Gilman. 

" THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer. 

" CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

" GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. 

" NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. 

" SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. 

" HUNGARY. Prof. A. VAmbery. 

14 CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 

" THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman. 

" THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. 

" THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett. 

" PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. 

" ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 

" ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. 

" ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

" THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. 

" IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. 

" TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. 

14 MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin. 

" MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustave Masson. 

" HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. 

" MEXICO. Susan Hale. 

" PHCENICIA. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson. 

" THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern. 

" EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. 

" THE BARB ARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole. 

" RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. 

'• THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W.D.Morrison. 

" SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. 

" SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug. 

« PORTUGAL. H. Morse Stephens. 

" THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. C. Oman. 

" SICILY. E. A. Freeman. 

«* THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy. 

*« POLAND. W. R. koRFiLL. 

" PARTHIA. Prof. George Rawlinson. 

" JAPAN. David Murray. 

" THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H. 

E. Watts. 
" AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregarthen. 
" SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M. Theal. 
" VENICE. AletheaWiel. 
44 THE CRUSADES. T. S. Archer and C. L. Kings- 

FORD. 

" VEDIC INDIA. By Z. A. Ragozin. 


7 
















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